William Safire Quotes

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.

President Reagan is a rhetorical roundheels, as befits a politician seeking empathy with his audience.

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

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

Some handsome and ambitious men believe they are above all morality, and a woman's virtue becomes a mere challenge to them.

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

Different regions may require different strategies, as President Bush has noted, but not different basic principles. It's either collective security or selective security.

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.

Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?

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

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

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

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

English is a stretch language; one size fits all.

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

I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.

We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.

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.

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.

Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.

Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.

By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.

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

George Washington had a tough second term.

Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.

The Republicans do not look on the Democrats as the evil empire.