Famous Split Infinitives
The opening sequence of Star Trek contains the phrase to boldly go where no man has gone before. This has varied in subsequent Star Trek works but the split infinitive remains in all of them.
The Oath of office of the President of the United States includes the text "to faithfully execute". In the 2009 inaugaration of Barack Obama, Chief Justice Roberts made a series of errors in adminstering Obama's oath of office. Steven Pinker traced some of these errors to the "shibboleth" against "split verbs", particularly the "myth" that it is "impossible to split an infinitive".
Read more about this topic: Split Infinitive
Famous quotes containing the words famous and/or split:
“The [Loyal] legion has taken the place of the club—the famous Cincinnati Literary Club—in my affections.... The military circles are interested in the same things with myself, and so we endure, if not enjoy, each other.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“William James once said: “Progress is a terrible thing.” It is more than that: it is also a highly ambiguous notion. For who knows but that a little further on the way a bridge may not have collapsed or a crevice split the earth?”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)