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When duty calls, that is when character counts.

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
Character
Counts
Calls
Duty

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English is a stretch language one size fits all.
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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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Have a definite opinion.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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.
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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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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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Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
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Never assume the obvious is true.
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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.
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Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.
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If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.
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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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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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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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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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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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