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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.

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
Guilty
Reading
Jobs
Feel
Feels
Never

More quotes by William Safire

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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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Color and bite permeate a language designed to rally many men, to destroy some, and to change the minds of others.
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After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate a glutton empraces the white porcelain alter, or more plainly, he barfs.
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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.
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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 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
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It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
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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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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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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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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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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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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
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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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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When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
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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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