‘Those who created the Latin language and those who spoke it well
do not give the word _humanitas_ the vulgar meaning which is
synonymous with the Greek word _philanthropia_, which means an
active kindness, a tender benevolence for all men. But they give
the word the meaning which the Greeks attach to _paideia_, which we
call education, knowledge of the fine arts. Those who show the most
taste and disposition for these studies are the most worthy to be
called _humanissimi_. For man alone among all living beings is able
to devote himself to cultivating a study which for that reason has
been called _humanitas_. Such is the meaning given to this by the
ancients, particularly by Varro and Cicero. Almost all their works
show examples, so I shall content myself with quoting one only. I
have chosen the opening of the first book of Varro “Concerning human
things”: “Praxiteles, qui propter artificium egregium nemini est paulum
modo humaniori ignotus (Praxiteles, whose excellent talent as an
artist has made him known to every man at all skilled in the arts)”.
Here _humanior_ does not bear the vulgar meaning of easy, tractable,
benevolent even though lacking in knowledge of letters. That meaning
would not express the author’s thought. It means an educated, a learned
man, one who is acquainted with Praxiteles through books and history.’
(Aulus Gellius, _Noctes Atticae_, Book XIII, XVI.)