Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.

The aphorism frames humanity as morally and technologically ambivalent: capable of extraordinary ingenuity that can “make deserts bloom” (irrigation, agriculture, settlement) while also producing unintended or negligent harm that can “make…lakes die” (pollution, eutrophication, overuse, ecological collapse). By pairing a triumphal image of cultivation with an image of environmental death, the line critiques simplistic narratives of progress. It suggests that the same capacities—engineering, extraction, large-scale planning—can either sustain life or degrade it, depending on restraint, foresight, and ethical responsibility. The compact antithesis makes the quote a pointed ecological warning as well as a general comment on human complexity.