“Nature’s tactical withdrawals” by C. S. Lewis

“Man’s conquest of Nature turns out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Nature’s conquest of Man. Every victory we seemed to win has led us, step by step, to this conclusion. All Nature’s apparent reverses have been but tactical withdrawals. We thought we were beating her back when she was luring us on. What looked to us like hands held up in surrender was really the opening of arms to enfold us for ever.”

–C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York: HarperCollins, 1944/2001), 68.

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