Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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
World
Idea
Tension
Makes
Round
Ideas
Resistance
Human
Rounds
Humans
Affair
Whole
Exists
Governed
Heart
Relationships
Governing
Love
Control
Affairs

More quotes by William Safire

Image
President Reagan is a rhetorical roundheels, as befits a politician seeking empathy with his audience.
William Safire
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
William Safire
Image
[Senators John Kerry & John Edwards] have risen high in Democratic polls with a brand of class resentment and soak-the-rich rhetoric rooted in the old-fashioned liberalism of Ted Kennedy.
William Safire
Image
A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.
William Safire
Image
No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
William Safire
Image
I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
William Safire
Image
It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
William Safire
Image
English is a stretch language one size fits all.
William Safire
Image
Never assume the obvious is true.
William Safire
Image
... 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.
William Safire
Image
Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.
William Safire
Image
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
Image
Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
William Safire
Image
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 . . .
William Safire
Image
I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
William Safire
Image
Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
William Safire
Image
Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
William Safire
Image
To communicate, put your words in order give them a purpose use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.
William Safire