Steven Grove

“America not only lacked a name. The Norwegians did not know they had discovered it long ago, and Columbus himself died convinced that he had reached Asia by the western route. In 1492, when Spanish boats first trod the beaches of the Bahamas, the Admiral thought these islands were an outpost of the fabulous isle of Zipango—Japan. Columbus took along a copy of Marco Polo’s book, and covered its margins with notes. The inhabitants of Zipango, said Marco Polo, “have gold in the greatest abundance, its sources being inexhaustible.…”
― Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

“For the New World as a whole, the Indian population decline in the century or two following Columbus’s arrival is estimated to have been as large as 95 percent.” Conservatively in plain numbers, that is 95 million dead across the Americas—the largest single population catastrophe in recorded human history, nearing an extinction-level event. It far exceeded even the Black Death. On”
― Timothy C. Winegard, The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator

“If you do not, or if you maliciously delay in so doing, I certify that with God’s help I will advance powerfully against you and make war on you wherever and however I am able, and will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their majesties and take your women and children to be slaves, and as such I will sell and dispose of them as their majesties may order, and I will take your possessions and do you all the harm and damage that I can.2”
― Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

“I'm an atheist, and I don't have any belief in an afterlife. You could say that I'm resigned to the fact that this wonderful life that we get here is it. And having hit 60, it's a good time to get resigned to these things and not be too nervous or upset - and enjoy what great times one can have.”
― David Gilmour