Pico della Mirandola：皮科·德拉·米朗多拉（1463－1494）是意大利文艺复兴时期的著名思想家，他的《关于人的尊严的演说》被称为“人文主义宣言”。在这篇节选的简短演说词中，米朗多拉热情洋溢地宣告，人是世间的奇迹与宇宙的精华；人的命运完全掌握在自己手中，不受任何外在之物的制约；人拥有理性、自由意志与高贵品质，通过自身的努力不仅可以超越万物，而且可以进入神的境界，与上帝融为一体。和其他人文主义者一样，米朗多拉也并未否定上帝的存在。但具有划时代意义的是，与中世纪的世界观形成鲜明对照，人文主义者肯定了人在宇宙的中心地位以及现世人生的美好和意义。因此，从某种意义上可以说，米朗多拉的人文主义宣言拉开了西方现代文明的序幕。

...At last it seems to me I have come to understand why man is the most fortunate of creatures and consequently worthy of all admiration and what precisely is that rank which is his lot in the universal chain of Being -a rank to be envied not only by brutes but even by the stars and by minds beyond this world. It is a matter past faith and a wondrous one. Why should it not be? For it is on this very account that man is rightly called and judged a great miracle and a wonderful creature indeed....

...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. The region above the heavens He had adorned with Intelligences, the heavenly spheres He had quickened with eternal souls, and the excrementary and filthy parts of the lower world He had filled with a multitude of animals of every kind. 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. Therefore, when everything was done(...), He finally took thought concerning the creation of man. But there was not among His archetypes that from which He could fashion a new offspring, nor was there in His treasure-houses anything which He might bestow on His new son as an inheritance, nor was there in the seats of all the world a place where the latter might sit to contemplate the universe. All was now complete; all things had been assigned to the highest, the middle, and the lowest orders. 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. 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.