Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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
Reading
Writing
Thinking
Tickle
Elevating
Improve
Least
More quotes by William Safire
Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
William Safire
Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
William Safire
You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
William Safire
No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
William Safire
A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.
William Safire
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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
Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.
William Safire
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.
William Safire
Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
William Safire
A man who lies, thinking it is the truth, is an honest man, and a man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, is a liar.
William Safire
Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
William Safire
A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.
William Safire
Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
William Safire
I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
William Safire
Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
William Safire
A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
William Safire
When duty calls, that is when character counts.
William Safire
I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
William Safire
The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
William Safire