On the dignity of man

"We have given to thee, Adam, no fixed seat, no form of thy very own, no gift peculiarly thine, that thou mayest feel as thine own, have as thine own, possess as thine own the seat, the form, the gifts which thou thyself shalt desire. A limited nature in other creatures is confined within the laws written down by Us. In conformity with thy free judgement, in whose hands I have placed thee, thou art confined by no bounds; and though wilt fix limits of nature by thyself."

Pico Della Mirandola, On the Dignity of Man, trans. Charles Glenn Wallis, Indianopolis: Library of Liberal America, 1965) 4-5.