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About this quote

What does it mean?
Human existence is defined by its ability to break natural forms and create new vital configurations through creative interference.
In plain terms
Humans create new life forms through imagination.
What can you take from it?
Humanity is defined by the power to reshape nature.

Where it applies

  • scientific innovation
  • artistic creation
  • urban planning

Putting it to work

  • innovate freely
  • reshape environment
  • value imagination

Questions to consider

  • How do you interfere with nature?
  • What defines human life?

Another view

Interfering with nature can lead to ecological imbalance.

More from Reinhold Niebuhr

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  2. The modern man is . . . certain about his essential virtue . . . [and since] he does not see that he has a freedom of spirit which transcends both nature and r…

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  3. All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.

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