"...yet he found time to write a speech about human dignity (Oratio de hominis dignitate). Pico (della Mirandola) intended it as an introduction to the congress but it was not published during his lifetime. From today's perspective, it is perhaps the most important text of the Italian Renaissance and the humanistic rhetoric of the time. Pico did not invent the concept of human dignity, we can think of Manetti who used it decades earlier. But he was the first to build his philosophy on it. In ancient Greece, being human meant being different from animals through reason. However, it does not mean that every person has a right to be valued and respected by society in a special way as a human being. For Aristotle, respect is due to man not as a human being, but through his virtuous lifestyle. It was precisely this respect that Markus Julius Cicero called 'Dignitas' (dignity). But even for the Romans, not all people were worthy, just those who proved themselves particularly worthy through virtue and reputation in society. It was only in the Renaissance that human dignity began to expand as a quality that all people have, simply because they are human beings. A medal of merit for a few becomes a legal right for everyone. Human dignity is democratized and from here on it makes its way through Immanuel Kant to the modern constitutions of democratic states."