man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is

I think that this means that we humans don't accept what we really are.
We can't be anything other than what we are.
It's like double edged sword in other words it is something that has or can have
both favorable and unfavorable consequences.... we generally grow and learn from
discomfort with what we perceive about ourselves.
On the other hand, we become quite depressed when we are dissatisfied with what we
are.
it seems that we benefits more from not accepting what we currently are. We have
come a long way from the beginning.despite all attempts to simply be present,
continually believing what others expect us to be rather than what we really are.
Perhaps our urge to fit in or be accepted by the social norm ,dominates our
willingness to simply be present..because we are self aware ,we cannot be free to
simply be who we are because we cannot do things because of embarrassment, social
pressures, personal goals, religion etc. Animals can just be, they don't have the
Id, ego and super-ego fighting amongst themselves to make us into a sadly diluted
specimen due to self awareness. Then again, this quote could easily be about the
rebellion against our own better human instincts in spite of the absurdity of
things