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Sir Alec Douglas-Home, when he was British Foreign Secretary, said he received the following telegram from an irate citizen: To hell with you. Offensive letter follows.
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
Hell
Secretary
Irate
Home
Citizen
Telegram
Received
Telegrams
Foreign
Douglas
Letters
Alec
British
Offensive
Following
Follows
Citizens
Letter
More quotes by William Safire
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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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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[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.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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You don't overturn a previous court's decisions lightly and I think most Americans are somewhere in the middle on abortion and there's not going to be a revolution here at all.
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Have a definite opinion.
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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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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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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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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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George Washington had a tough second term.
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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
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When duty calls, that is when character counts.
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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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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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Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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