From a letter to Mary A. Hulbert (21 September 1913)
1910s
“The capacity to reason is a special sort of capacity because it can lead us to places that we did not expect to go.”
Source: The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1981), Chapter 4, Reason, p. 88
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Peter Singer 54
Australian philosopher 1946Related quotes
Adolf Hitler to Max Amann, May 1930 quotes in A History of National Socialism (Responding to Fascism Vol 2) https://books.google.com/books?id=CkdZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=have+worked+their+way+to+the+top+by+their+own+abilities,+and+this+proof+of+their+capacity+%E2%80%93+a+capacity+only+displayed+by+a+higher+race+%E2%80%93+gives+them+the+right+to&source=bl&ots=RlP4mOW504&sig=lyFV37iP2WvQC-6al732ME_lNlo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYi--M4aLVAhWLNT4KHS9xAW8Q6AEIKTAB#v=snippet&q=amann&f=false
1930s
Context: What right do these people have to demand a share of property or even in administration?... The employer who accepts the responsibility for production also gives the workpeople their means of livelihood. Our greatest industrialists are not concerned with the acquisition of wealth or with good living, but, above all else, with responsibility and power. They have worked their way to the top by their own abilities, and this proof of their capacity – a capacity only displayed by a higher race – gives them the right to lead.
“Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”
On accepting foreign talent (Straits Times, 22 April 2007)
2000s
As cited in West, Celeste, 1986, "In Memoriam: Elsa Gidlow", Feminist Studies, 12 (3), 614.