William Lewis Safir Quotes
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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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Do not put statements in the negative form. And don't start sentences with a conjunction. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all. De-accession euphemisms. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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The first ladyship is the only federal office in which the holder can neither be fired nor impeached.
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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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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.
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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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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
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A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.
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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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I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
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Some handsome and ambitious men believe they are above all morality, and a woman's virtue becomes a mere challenge to them.
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Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing; the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.
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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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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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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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This is not some alarmist Orwellian scenario; it is here, now, financed by $20 billion last year and $15 billion more this year of federal money appropriated out of sheer fear. By creating the means to monitor 300 million visits to the United States yearly, this administration and a supine opposition are building a system capable of identifying, tracking and spying on 300 million Americans.
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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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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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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'