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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.

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
Jerks
Knee
Jerk
Knees
Better

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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.
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
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The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.
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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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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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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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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.
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Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
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Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.
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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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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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One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially the classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience.
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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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... 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 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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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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I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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