Barbara Tuchman on the Renaissance

A nice summation of the Renaissance by Barbara Tuchman in The March of Folly:

Christopher Columbus statue at 
downtown Seattle's 
Waterfront Park

At about the time Columbus discovered America, the Renaissance—which is to say the period when the values of this world replaced those of the thereafter—was in full flower in Italy. Under its impulse the individual found in himself, rather than in God, the designer and captain of his fate.

Key point: ...the individual found in himself, rather than in God, the designer and captain of his fate...

Which brings to mind the words of the poet William Ernest Henley in his poem Invictus: 

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.