«I gave you neither a face nor a place to be your own, nor any gift that be yours alone, o Adam, in order that you alone may will, conquer and possess your face, your place and your gifts. Nature contains other species obeying laws set up by me. But you who are subject to no limit, with your own free will I bestowed on you, you may define yourself. I placed you in the centre of the world in order that you may better contemplate all it contains. I made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that on your own, freely, like a good painter or a skilled sculptor, you may shape your own image.»

Pico della Mirandola, Oratio de hominis dignitate.

...Nec te caelestem neque terrenum,
neque mortalem neque immortalem fecimus,
ut tui ipsius quasi arbitrarius honorariusque plastes et fictor,
in quam malueris tute formam effingas.

Nec certam sedem,
nec propriam faciem,
nec munus ullum peculiare tibi dedimus,

o Adam...