#time
"But if you can breed cattle for milk yield, horses for running speed, and dogs for herding skill, why on Earth should it be impossible to breed humans for mathematical, musical or athletic ability? Objections such as "these are not one-dimensional abilities" apply equally to cows, horses and dogs and never stopped anybody in practice. I wonder whether, some 60 years after Hitler's death, we might at least venture to ask what the moral difference is between breeding for musical ability and forcing a child to take music lessons. Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and they are good ones, which would probably end up persuading me. But hasn't the time come when we should stop being frightened even to put the question?"
React to this quote
More by Richard Dawkins
See allResonant Thoughts
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"On September 28 the fleet hove in sight, and all came safely to anchor in Pevensey Bay. There was no opposi…"
— Winston Churchill"I could show, that the same faction has, in one reign, promoted popular seditions, and, in the next, been a…"
— Edmund Burke"On 11 November 1997, Veronika decided that the moment to kill herself had — at last! — arrived."
— Paulo Coelho"Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people a…"
— Ernest Hemingway"America, this is our moment. This is our time, our time to turn the page on the policies of the past, our t…"
— Barack Obama"Historicism runs counter to the specific capacity of the literary work to escape the limits of historical t…"
— Russell Berman
