Quotes by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

About Giovanni Pico della Mirandola:

Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation".
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We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, Neither mortal or immortal, So that with freedom of choice and with honor, As thought the maker and molder of thyself, Thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. Thou shalt have ...

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

At last the best of artisans ordained that that creature to whom He had been able to give nothing proper to himself should have joint possession of whatever had been peculiar to each of the different kinds of being.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

But, when the work was finished, the Craftsman kept wishing that there were someone to ponder the plan of so great a work, to love its beauty, and to wonder at its vastness.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Admittedly great though these reasons be, they are not the principal grounds, that is, those which may rightfully claim for themselves the privilege of the highest admiration.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

God the Father, the supreme Architect, had already built this cosmic home we behold, the most sacred temple of His godhead, by the laws of His mysterious wisdom.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

It was not the part of His kindly love that he who was to praise God's divine generosity in regard to others should be compelled to condemn it in regard to himself.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

And if, happy in the lot of no created thing, he withdraws into the center of his own unity, his spirit, made one with God, in the solitary darkness of God, who is set above all things, shall surpass them all.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

On man when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

For why should we not admire more the angels themselves and the blessed choirs of heaven?

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Spiritual beings, either from the beginning or soon thereafter, become what they are to be for ever and ever.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will be like a plant.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

If you see a philosopher determining all things by means of right reason, him you shall reverence: he is a heavenly being and not of this earth.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

But in its final creation it was not the part of the Father's power to fail as though exhausted. It was not the part of His wisdom to waver in a needful matter through poverty of counsel.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

The Pythagoreans degrade impious men into brutes and, if one is to believe Empedocles, even into plants.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Author Bio

  • NameGiovanni Pico della Mirandola
  • Descriptionhumanist and philosopher from Italy
  • AliasesPico della Mirandola; Giovanni Pico
  • BornFebruary 24, 1463
  • DiedNovember 17, 1494
  • CountryItaly
  • ProfessionPhilosopher