Quotes from William Safire

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.

In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.

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

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

Chandler's "She was blonde enough to make a bishop kick a hole through a stained-glass window

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

In our time, the triumph of the political dissident has led to an explosion of freedom

On the two-way street of communication, a happy symbiosis is achieved when a writer tosses up an offbeat usage or a puzzling word and the working reader figures it out and savors it.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

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

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

Never assume the obvious is true.

When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.

If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.

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