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.

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

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