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

The quote by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola is describing the beliefs of the ancient Greek theorist Pythagoras and his fans, the Pythagoreans. According to Pythagoras, those who were impious or immoral were broken down into lower kinds of life. This might suggest that they were degraded into animals, and even plants, as suggested by the theorist Empedocles. This idea of destruction was a method of punishing those who were not measuring up to the moral standards of the Pythagoreans. It was a method of revealing that those who were not living a virtuous life would be penalized and would not have the ability to reach the same level of spiritual enlightenment as those who were living an ethical life. This quote is a tip that morality and virtue are important which those who do not live up to these requirements will be punished.