Quotes from Christopher Columbus

Tomorrow morning before we depart, I intend to land and see what can be found in the neighborhood.

For this purpose I determined to keep an account of the voyage, and to write down punctually every thing we performed or saw from day to day, as will hereafter appear.

I am not solicitous to examine particularly everything here, which indeed could not be done in fifty years, because my desire is to make all possible discoveries, and return to your Highnesses, if it please our Lord, in April.

Riches don't make a man rich, they only make him busier.

With gold a man can do anything. It even sends souls to paradise.

The two Christians met on the way many people who were going to their towns, women and men, with a firebrand in the hand, herbs to drink the smoke thereof, as they are accustomed.

An old man came on board my boat; the others, both men and women cried with loud voices: "Come and see the men who have come from the sky. Bring them victuals and drink."

These people are very unskilled in arms... with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished.

At two hours after midnight appeared the land, at a distance of 2 leagues. They handed all sails and set the treo, which is the mainsail without bonnets, and lay-to waiting for daylight Friday, when they arrived at an island of the Bahamas that was called in the Indians' tongue Guanahanä [San Salvador].

For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps.

No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service.

I came to serve you at the age of 28 and now I have not a hair on me that is not white, and my body is infirm and exhausted. All that was left to me and my brothers has been taken away and sold, even to the cloak that I wore, without hearing or trial, to my great dishonor.

And they know neither sect nor idolatry, with the exception that all believe that the source of all power and goodness is in the sky, and they believe very firmly that I, with these ships and people, came from the sky, and in this belief they everywhere received me, after they had overcome their fear.

And I say that Your Highnesses ought not to consent that any foreigner does business or sets foot here, except Christian Catholics, since this was the end and the beginning of the enterprise, that it should be for the enhancement and glory of the Christian religion, nor should anyone who is not a good Christian come to these parts.

Here the people could stand it no longer and complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral cheered them as best he could, holding out good hope of the advantages they would have. He added that it was useless to complain, he had come [to go] to the Indies, and so had to continue it until he found them, with the help of Our Lord.

Tomorrow morning before we depart, I intend to land and see what can be found in the neighborhood.

I have always read that the world, both land and water, was spherical, as the authority and researches of Ptolemy and all the others who have written on this subject demonstrate and prove, as do the eclipses of the moon and other experiments that are made from east to west, and the elevation of the North Star from north to south.

Stood off and on during the night, determining not to come to anchor till morning, fearing to meet with shoals continued our course in the morning and as the island was found to be six or seven leagues distant, and the tide was against us, it was noon when we arrived there.

The two Christians met on the way many people who were going to their towns, women and men, with a firebrand in the hand, [and] herbs to drink the smoke thereof, as they are accustomed.

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. (Misattributed: Actually by André Gide.)

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

The sea will grant each man new hope The sleep brings dreams of home.

Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.

So tractable, so peaceable are these people that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation. They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle and accompanied with a smile; and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy.