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In dealing with Syria's dictator...only force counts. No cease-fire was attainable in Lebanon until the 16-inch guns of the battleship New Jersey started shelling Syria's proxies suddenly, sweet reason prevailed in Damascus.
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
Suddenly
Dictator
Battleship
Sweet
Counts
Damascus
Started
Inches
Prevailed
Fire
Syria
Proxy
Peace
Guns
Attainable
Force
Dealing
Lebanon
War
Cease
Inch
Reason
Gun
Jersey
Shelling
More quotes by William Safire
At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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One difference between French appeasement and American appeasement is that France pays ransom in cash and gets its hostages back while the United States pays ransom in arms and gets additional hostages taken.
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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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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
William Safire
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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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
William Safire
If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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The tension between the governed and the governing is what makes the world go 'round. It's not love, it's that tension, because that tension exists in love affairs. The whole idea of control is at the heart of human relationships. Control and resistance to control.
William Safire
Some handsome and ambitious men believe they are above all morality, and a woman's virtue becomes a mere challenge to them.
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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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The CEO era gave rise to the CFO (not certified flying object, as you might imagine, but chief financial officer) and, most recently, the CIO, chief investment officer, a nice boost for the bookkeeper you can't afford to give a raise . . .
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Different regions may require different strategies, as President Bush has noted, but not different basic principles. It's either collective security or selective security.
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... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
William Safire
A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.
William Safire
I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
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