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Taka Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

all

The power of ethics is that you are only as good as the good that you do, as the evil that you refrain from doing, all with no other reward than the satisfaction—even if no one ever knows of it—of having done good.
About the 'all' in bold, is it adverbial or a pronoun?
  

Top answer

Hi, It's a noun. 'All of these things' . Clive

— Clive

  • Hi, It's a noun.
  • 'All of these things' .
  • Clive
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12 Answers
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Hi,
It's a noun. 'All of these things'.

Clive
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Clive,
Don't you think it is the same as this one?

The power of ethics is that you are only as good as the good that you do, as the evil that you refrain from doing, totally with no other reward / wholly without any other reward than the satisfaction—even if no one ever knows of it—of having done good. About the 'all' in bold, is it ad
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Hi,
Then what would you say this adverbial modifies?

Clive
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CliveHi,
Then what would you say this adverbial modifies?

Clive

The following prepositional phrase, as 'completely without...'
Don't you think the 'all' in question is gramatically the same as these kinds?
·I'm all in favor of his proposal.
·The Princess lived all alone/by herself in the middle of the
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Hi,
Let me ask you this about the original text.

What 'thing' or 'action' is it that the writer is saying is 'all (or wholely) with no other reward than the satisfaction—even if no one ever knows of it—of having done good' ?

Clive
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I think it's just that truly good people behave in good ways completely/totally without any reward other than the satisfaction that they have done something good. And they are just as good as they are. 
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Hi,
So you think it modifies the good that you do, . . . the evil that you refrain from doing?

Clive
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CliveHi,
So you think it modifies the good that you do, . . . the evil that you refrain from doing?

Clive


No. As I said above, I think it modifies the following prepositional phrase:
all with no other reward than the satisfaction...
as these examples:
·I'm all in favor of his prop
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Hi,
I admit that's a valid interpretation.

I don't think I'd be inclined to write the sentence that way myself. I'd probably omit 'all', particularly since the phrase 'with no other . . ' is included. Certainly, if you substitute a word like 'wholely' or 'completely', the phrase 'with no other reward' does not seem to me to fit well.

My interpretation, as I mentioned earlier
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When I first saw your 'wholely', I thought it was a typo. But as you used it again, it doesn't seem that it is. I wonder if there exists such a word...
Anyway, about the pronoun or not problem. I thought it might be a pronoun, just as you think. However, if it were a pronoun 'all (of these things)', grammatically it would follow that it referred to 'the good' as well as '
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