One would like to see mankind spend the balance of the century in a total effort to clean up and groom the surface of the globe - wipe out the jungles, turn deserts and swamps into arable land, terrace barren mountains, regulate rivers, eradicate all pests, control the weather, and make the whole land mass a fit habitation for Man. The globe should be our and not nature's home, and we no longer nature's guests.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Humanity should dominate and reshape the earth completely.
- In plain terms
- We should fix the planet to suit our needs rather than adapt to nature.
- What can you take from it?
- Nature should serve human needs.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Should nature be controlled?
- How far should we reshape the earth?
Another view
This view ignores ecological balance.
More from Eric Hoffer
The ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a Communist country it takes half the populati…
Permalink to quote #86 Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic hum…
Permalink to quote #88 There can be no freedom without freedom to fail. page 80, Buccaneer Books edition (1990) ISBN 0899667481 172 pages total
Permalink to quote #85
Related quotes
Progress, under whose feet the grass mourns and the forest turns into paper from which newspaper plants grow, has subordinated the purpose of life to the means…
Karl KrausKarl Kraus quote #35 Every day, man is making bigger and better foolproof things, and every day, Nature is making bigger and better fools. So far, I think Nature is winning.
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #265 The vast material displacements the machine has made in our physical environment are perhaps in the long run less important than its spiritual contributions to…
Lewis MumfordLewis Mumford quote #2