Bernal Díaz del Castillo > Quotes

“We came to serve God, and to get rich.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo

“Most of the Indians, particularly those living on the coasts and in the hotter climates, were given to unnatural lusts. To such a dreadful degree was this practised, that men even went about in female garments, and made a livelihood by their diabolical and cursed lewdness.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“The Mexicans relate that, shortly before our arrival in New Spain, there appeared a figure in the heavens of a circular form, like a carriage wheel, the colours of which were a mixture of green and red. Shortly after a second, of a similar form, made its appearance, which moved towards the rising of the sun, and joined the first.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“them. We were the persons who made this good beginning, and it was not until two years later, when we had made the conquest, and introduced good morals and better manners among the inhabitants, that the pious Franciscan brothers arrived, and three or four years after the virtuous monks of the Dominican order, who further continued the good work, and spread Christianity through the country. The first part of the work, however, next to the Almighty, was done by us, the true Conquistadores, who subdued the country, and by the Brothers of Charity, who accompanied”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“as the whole conquest never put the crown to any expense.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Nothing is more prejudicial to war than talk.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Quauhtemoctzin was taken prisoner on St. Hippolytus' day, the 13th August, 1521, about the hour of vespers. Praise and glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary. Amen.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“for next to God, who is our strength, all depends upon the valour of our arms.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Further, we requested his majesty not to send any lawyers into the country, as those persons, with all their learning, would merely breed lawsuits, discord, and confusion throughout the whole country.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“And as we came among the houses we saw how large a town it was, larger than any we had yet seen, and were fll of admiration. It was so green with vegetation that it looked like a garden; and its streets were so full of men and women who had some out to see us that we gave thanks to God for the discovery of such a country.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Some readers who have visited New Spain, and other interested persons who have not, may be aware that Mexico was a very large city, built in the water like Venice, and governed by a great prince called Montezuma, who was a king of many neighbouring lands and ruled over the whole of New Spain, which is a country twice the size of out own.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“However, I will say no more on this subject, for everything is guided and directed by the hand of God.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“that Cortes' only reason for not wishing to put the monarch to the torture was, that he might secretly take possession of all his riches.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“The sun, moon, stars, firmament, the sea and the earth have their fixed course, and if ever they do diverge from their regular course, they always correct themselves again; may Cortes, in his love of power, take this as a precept.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“His majesty not only confirmed the decision to which the commissioners had come, but issued other royal letters by which Cortes was empowered to banish from New Spain all deserters and those Spaniards who strolled about the country like vagabonds, as they obstructed the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. Further, all lawyers were forbidden to settle in New Spain for a certain number of years to come, for they only created lawsuits, quarrels, and dissensions among the inhabitants.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“In this province Sandoval laid the foundation of a town, which, by the desire of Cortes, he named Medellin, after the latter's native place, in Estremadura.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“for when man can satisfy his appetite, he forgets half his sufferings.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“They cooked more than three hundred plates of the food the great Montezuma was going to eat, and more than a thousand more for the guard. I have heard that they used to cook him the flesh of young boys. But as he had such a variety of dishes, made of so many different ingredients, we could not tell whether a dish was of human flesh or anything else, since every day they cooked fowls, turkeys, pheasants, local partridges, quail, tame and wild duck, venison, wild boar, marsh birds, pigeons, hares and rabbits, also many other kinds of birds and beasts native to their country, so numerous that I cannot quickly name them all.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“neither God nor the king had commanded us to turn a free people into slaves.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“it was better to be alone than in bad company.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Als er die Sturmhaube mit dem Helm seines Kriegsgottes verglich, zweifelte er keinen Augenblick mehr daran, dass wir die Vorläufer jenes Volkes waren, dass nach den alten Prophezeiungen dereinst die Macht über sein Land übernehmen sollte.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Wahrhafte Geschichte der Entdeckung und Eroberung von Mexiko

“The pitcher goes to the well until it is broken, and one morning or other we should undoubtedly be sacrificed to the idols.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“E han de considerar los curiosos que esto leyeren tan grandes hechos que entonces hicimos: dar con los navíos al través; lo otro, osar entrar en tan fuerte cibdad, teniendo tantos avisos que allí nos habían de matar desque dentro nos tuviesen; lo otro, tener tanta osadía; osar prender al gran Montezuma, que era rey de aquella tierra, dentro en su gran cibdad y en sus mismos palacios, teniendo gran número de guerreros de su guarda; y lo otro, osar quemar sus capitanes delante de sus palacios y echalle grillos entre tanto que se hacía la justicia. Muchas veces, agora que soy viejo, me paro a considerar las cosas heroicas que en aquel tiempo pasamos, que me parece las veo presentes, y digo que nuestros hechos que no los hacíamos nosotros, sino que venían todos encaminados por Dios. Porque ¿qué hombres habido en el mundo que osasen entrar, cuatrocientos soldados, y aun no llegamos a ellos, en una fuerte cibdad como es México, que es mayor que Venecia, estando apartados de nuestra Castilla sobre más de mil y quinientas leguas, prender a un tan gran señor y hacer justicia de sus capitanes delante dél?”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueua España 1632 [Leather Bound]

“Every now and then was handed to him a golden pitcher filled with a kind of liquor made from the cacao, which is of a very exciting nature.[”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Indeed I do not believe a country was ever discovered which was equal in splendour to this; for Peru was not known at that time. But, at the present moment, there is not a vestige of all this remaining, and not a stone of this beautiful town is now standing.[”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“the old saying, he who strikes the first blow remains master of the field;”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“We commended ourselves to the protection of God, and unfurled our standard, which was borne by the ensign Corral.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“Verily, I am determined they shall comply with this, and let this be the commencement of our work!”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“It was an easy matter to make war, but it always terminated in the destruction of those who first began it.”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

“frothing jugs of cacao”
― Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain