Great Throughts Treasury

"Appeasement does not always lead to war; sometimes it leads to surrender."

"Economic freedom cannot exist without political freedom."

"A sense of duty is moral glue, constantly subject to stress."

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"After eating, an epicure gives a thin smile of satisfaction; a gastronome, burping into his napkin, praises the food in a magazine; a gourmet, repressing his burp, criticizes the food in the same magazine; a gourmand belches happily and tells everybody where he ate; a glutton embraces the white porcelain altar, or, more plainly, he barfs."

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

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

"And so tonight ? to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans ? I ask for your support."

"Composition is a discipline; it forces us to think. 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."

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

"Create your own constituency of the infuriated."

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

"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."

"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."

"Ears are sloppy and eyes are precise; accordingly, speech can be loose but writing should be tight."

"English is a stretch language; one size fits all."

"Grammar and Usage Rules: Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read. Don't use no double negatives. Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn't. Reserve the apostrophe for its proper use and omit it when it?s not needed. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs has to agree with their subjects. No sentence fragments. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. Avoid commas, that are not necessary. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. A writer must not shift your point of view. Eschew dialect, irregardless. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!! Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents. Writers should always hyphenate between syllables and avoid un-necessary hyph-ens. Write all adverbial forms correct. Don't use contractions in formal writing. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided. It is incumbent on us to avoid archaisms. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck in the language. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixed metaphors. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, resist hyperbole. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration. Don't string too many prepositional phrases together unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Always pick on the correct idiom. "Avoid overuse of 'quotation "marks."'" The adverb always follows the verb. Last but not least, avoid clich‚s like the plague; seek viable alternatives."

"Have a definite opinion."

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

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

"I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted - not my hand held by an old smoothie."

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian. I was the first to really go after George W. on his treatment of prisoners."

"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'."

"In the event of moon disaster: Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice. These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown. In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at 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. Others will follow and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind. PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT: The president should telephone each of the widows-to-be. AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, at the point when NASA ends communications with the men: A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lord's Prayer. And so tonight ? to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans ? I ask for your support."

"In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism."

"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."

"Last, but not least, avoid clich‚s like the plague."

"Never assume the obvious is true."

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

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

"Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes."

"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."

"Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected."

"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."

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

"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."

"Only in grammar can you be more than perfect."

"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."

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

"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."

"The CEO era gave rise to the CFO (not certified flying object, as you might imagine, but chief financial officer) and, most recently, the CIO, chief investment officer, a nice boost for the bookkeeper you can't afford to give a raise..."