Il verbo irregolare can significa potere...
vedi anche i verbi modali inglesi - can e could
Nella sua declinazione irregolare si fa sostituire al participio passato dalla forma 'been able':

Aforismi con can, could, been able

Civilized people cannot fully satisfy their sexual instinct without love
Bertrand Russell

Death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down. The difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone and no one is going to make fun of you.
Woody Allen

My childhood was a period of waiting for the moment when I could send everyone and everything connected with it to hell.
Igor Stravinsky

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
Thomas Jefferson

It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way.
Oscar Wilde