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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.

William Safire

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William Safire
Age: 79 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 17
Died: 2009
Died: September 27
Author
Columnist
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
William Lewis Safire
Make
Remarkable
Whose
News
Crystallized
Opinion
Legion
Individual
Colorful
History
Collectives
Enough
Collective
Different
Opinions

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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.
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In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.'
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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
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We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.
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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
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Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.
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When your government, employer, landlord, merchant, banker and local sports team gang up to picture, digitize and permanently record your every activity, you are placed under unprecedented control.
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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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Sir Alec Douglas-Home, when he was British Foreign Secretary, said he received the following telegram from an irate citizen: To hell with you. Offensive letter follows.
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If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.
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Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.
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