Famous Sentences and Their Structures

Analyze the structure and syntax of the sentences in each section. [Bracket dependent clauses.] (Syntax: the way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences)

Part A. Which structure do these sentences have in common? What are their syntactical distinctions? Part A Structure: ______

1. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and

establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Preamble to the United States Constitution Distinctions: ______2. Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Mark Twain Distinctions: ______3. There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Thomas Jefferson Distinctions: ______4. All our words from loose using have lost their edge. Ernest Hemingway Distinctions: ______5. In teaching others we teach ourselves. Proverb Distinctions: ______6. Initiative is doing the right thing without being told. Victor Hugo Distinctions: ______7. Every good thing in the world stands on the razor-edge of danger. Thornton Wilder Distinctions: ______8. You can do anything, but not everything. David Allen Distinctions: ______

9. Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt Distinctions: ______Famous Sentences and Their Structures, p. 2

Part B. Which structure do these sentences have in common? What are their syntactical distinctions? Part B Structure: ______

1. Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time. Chinese proverb Distinctions: ______2. Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself. Chinese proverb Distinctions: ______3. Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still. Chinese proverb Distinctions: ______4. Do not wait; the time will never be ''just right.'' Napoleon Hill Distinctions: ______5. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius Distinctions: ______

Part C. Which structure do these sentences have in common? What are their syntactical distinctions? Part C Structure: ______

1. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. Mark Twain Distinctions: ______2. When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike you, do not wait until he has struck before you crush him. Franklin D. Roosevelt Distinctions: ______3. You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. Wayne Gretzky Distinctions: ______4. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Gandhi Distinctions: ______5. If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us. Anonymous Distinctions: ______Famous Sentences and Their Structures, p. 3

Part D. Which structure do these sentences have in common? What are their syntactical distinctions? Part D Structure: ______1. Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it. Mahatma Gandhi Distinctions: ______2. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean. Lin-Chi Distinctions: ______3. We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle Distinctions: ______4. Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is. Oscar Wilde Distinctions: ______5. When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. Distinctions: ______

Identify the structure and any syntactical distinctions in the sentences below.

1. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. Marcel Proust

2. To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. Abraham Maslow

3. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle 4. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Abraham Lincoln 5. Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. Mark Twain