Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by William Safire

The noun phrase straw man, now used as a compound adjective as in 'straw-man device, technique or issue,' was popularized in American culture by 'The Wizard of Oz.'

Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.

A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

Today, war of necessity is used by critics of military action to describe unavoidable response to an attack like that on Pearl Harbor that led to our prompt, official declaration of war, while they characterize as unwise wars of choice the wars in Korea, Vietnam and the current war in Iraq.

What do you call a co-worker these days? Neither teammate nor confederate will do, and partner is too legalistic. The answer brought from academia to the political world by Henry Kissinger and now bandied in the boardroom is colleague. It has a nice upper-egalitarian feel, related to the good fellowship of collegial.

Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.

I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.

Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.

When infuriated by an outrageous column, do not be suckered into responding with an abusive e-mail. Pundits so targeted thumb through these red-faced electronic missives with delight, saying 'Hah! Got to 'em.'

Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.

Never assume the obvious is true.

Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.

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.

When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.

I think we all have a need to know what we do not need to know.

Stop worrying about the 'dumbing down' of our language by bloggers, tweeters, cableheads and MSM thumbsuckers engaged in a 'race to the bottom' of the page by little minds confined to little words.

Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.

I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.

I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.

At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.

Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.

Have a definite opinion.

When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

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.

Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.

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.

Never look for the story in the 'lede.' Reporters are required to put what's happened up top, but the practiced pundit places a nugget of news, even a startling insight, halfway down the column, directed at the politiscenti. When pressed for time, the savvy reader starts there.

A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.

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.

The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.

Don't expect others to do your work for you.

Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace.

Create your own constituency of the infuriated.

It is in the nature of tyranny to deride the will of the people as the voice of the mob, and to denounce the cry for freedom as the roar of anarchy.

English is a stretch language; one size fits all.

The Latin motto over Poindexter's new Pentagon office reads Scientia Est Potentia - "knowledge is power." Exactly: the government's infinite knowledge about you is its power over you.

Took me a while to get to the point today, but that is because I did not know what the point was when I started.

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.

The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.

Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.

A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.

Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.

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.

A man who lies, thinking it is the truth, is an honest man, and a man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, is a liar.

The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.

I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.

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.

No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.

Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.

If you want to "get in touch with your feelings," fine, talk to yourself. We all do. But if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order, give them a purpose, use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down, and then cut out the confusing parts.

As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.

When duty calls, that is when character counts.

Adjective salad is delicious, with each element contributing its individual and unique flavor; but a puree of adjective soup tastes yecchy.

Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'

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.

You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.

Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.

What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.

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."