Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
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.
William Safire
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Every
Picture
Merchants
Record
Unprecedented
Activity
Bankers
Records
Employers
Banker
Control
Gang
Merchant
Team
Placed
Landlord
Sports
Locals
Employer
Government
Local
Permanently
More quotes by William Safire
Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.
William Safire
I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
William Safire
It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
William Safire
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
I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
William Safire
The wonderful thing about being a New York Times columnist is that it's like a Supreme Court appointment - they're stuck with you for a long time.
William Safire
Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.
William Safire
To be accused of 'channeling' is to be dismissed as a ventriloquist's live dummy, derogated at not having a mind of one's own.
William Safire
Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
William Safire
Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
William Safire
No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
William Safire
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.
William Safire
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.
William Safire
Color and bite permeate a language designed to rally many men, to destroy some, and to change the minds of others.
William Safire
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
Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
William Safire
A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
William Safire
The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
William Safire
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
William Safire
As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
William Safire