Pico della Mirándola, a Florentine thinker, said–wrote the following: “God told man that we, meaning God, have made the neither of Heaven nor of Earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. Oh supreme generosity of God the Father, oh highest and the most great felicity of man, to Him it is granted to have whatever He chooses to be whatever He wills.”
Now, this is a remarkable leap, even beyond the humanism of the Greeks, something brand new in the world. According to this view, man is not merely the measure of all things as the Greek Sophist Protagoras had radically proclaimed in the fifth century. He is, in fact says Pico, more than mortal. He is unlimited by nature. He is entirely free to shape himself and to acquire whatever he wants. Please observe too that it is not his reason that will determine human actions but his will alone, free of the moderating control of reason.
–<Intro to Ancient Greek History>
