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

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.

Never assume the obvious is true.

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

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

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

Have a definite opinion.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.'

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.

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.

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.

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

When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.

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.'

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

Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.

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

Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.

We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings.

Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.

Tolerance it a tremendous virtue, but the immediate neighbors of tolerance are apathy and weakness.

Persecution was at least a sign of personal interest. Tolerance is composed of nine parts of apathy to one of brotherly love.

When too many Americans don't vote or participate, some see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration can come hope and action.

Harold Wilson is going around the country stirring up apathy.

I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy.

Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.

Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care.

People have moved beyond apathy, beyond skepticism into deep cynicism.

Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.

In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.

I was faced more with apathy than opposition.

Apathy is a sort of living oblivion.