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The first ladyship is the only federal office in which the holder can neither be fired nor impeached.

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
Neither
Office
Firsts
First
Impeached
Holder
Fired
Federal

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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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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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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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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate a glutton empraces the white porcelain alter, or more plainly, he barfs.
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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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A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.
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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
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To 'know your place' is a good idea in politics. That is not to say 'stay in your place' or 'hang on to your place', because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place - a feel for one's own position in the control room-is useful in gauging what you should try to do.
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
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A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.
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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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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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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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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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The new, old, and constantly changing language of politics is a lexicon of conflict and drama?ridicule and reproach?pleading and persuasion.
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Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.
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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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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.
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This is what it's all about. From what I could see, you could get a bunch of people together, whip up the press and have some impact.
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