William Lewis Safir Quotes
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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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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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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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The first ladyship is the only federal office in which the holder can neither be fired nor impeached.
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I was standing next to a famed geo-politician when the first news of the Argentine attack [on the Faulkland Islands] was received, and heard him muse incredulously: "An old-fashioned naval battle. A war between two civilized nations, perhaps with even a declaration of war, and later a peace conference. Wow." No hostages, no nukes, no ideologies, no religious fanaticism; just a fair-and-square war over national interests - hard to believe, in this day and age.
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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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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
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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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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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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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Have a definite opinion.
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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 articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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In dealing with Syria's dictator...only force counts. No cease-fire was attainable in Lebanon until the 16-inch guns of the battleship New Jersey started shelling Syria's proxies; suddenly, sweet reason prevailed in Damascus.
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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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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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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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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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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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 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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Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.