Christopher Columbus

“So that they might be well-disposed towards us... for I knew that they were a people to be delivered and converted to our holy faith rather by love than by force.”

“I went to sea from the most tender age and have continued in a sea life to this day... Wherever ship has gone, I have gone.”

“These people are very simple in war-like matters... I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”

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

“I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown.”

“God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth... and he showed me the spot where to find it.”

“The lands... are all most beautiful... and full of trees of a thousand kinds, so lofty that they seem to reach the sky.”

“Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.”

“They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

“Your Highnesses have another world here, by which our holy faith can be so greatly advanced and from which such great wealth can be drawn.”

“It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies.”

“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.”