I heard this in a high-school commencement speech by President Bush over the weekend.

Problem:
The President used the wrong pronoun here.

Explanation:
This was part of a sentence that went along the lines of “I want you to spend your lives devoted to a cause larger than yourselves.”

The pronoun “yourselves” is a plural, second-person pronoun.

It should be used in one of two ways:

• reflexively: “You can do it yourselves.”
• for emphasis: “a group petition that you yourselves submitted”

Its use in the President’s speech followed neither of these patterns.

Instead, “a cause larger than yourselves” follows the pattern of “an X larger than Y” — for which “Y” is neither reflexive nor inserted for emphasis.

Solution:
“… a cause larger than you.”