#columbus

If America had been discovered as many times as I have, no one would remember Columbus. ↗

— Sean Connery

#been #columbus #discovered #had #i

This is largely the methodology I've used throughout my career - that is, starting with a question as to what might be the properties of a set of compounds that could be invented which were unusual and unpredictable. Many times I've felt a bit like Columbus setting sail. ↗

— Donald Cram

#career #columbus #compounds #could #felt

Columbus's real achievement was managing to cross the ocean successfully in both directions. Though an accomplished enough mariner, he was not terribly good at a great deal else, especially geography, the skill that would seem most vital in an explorer. It would be hard to name any figure in history who has achieved more lasting fame with less competence. He spent large parts of eight years bouncing around Caribbean islands and coastal South America convinced that he was in the heart of the Orient and that Japan and China were at the edge of every sunset. He never worked out that Cuba is an island and never once set foot on, or even suspected the existence of, the landmass to the north that everyone thinks he discovered: the United States. ↗

— Bill Bryson

#columbus #columbus-day #life

Twenty years ago I wanted to move to a nice place so our Charley would grow up a nice boy and learn a profession. But instead we live in a jungle, so he can only be a wild animal. D'you think I picked the East Side like Columbus picked America? ↗

— Abraham Polonsky

#america #animal #boy #charley #columbus

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#brothers #clown #columbus #does #fact

Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive. ↗

— Milton Friedman

#did #directive #indies #majority #new

The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery. ↗

— Georg C. Lichtenberg

#bad #columbus #discovered #discovery #first

I grew up in Columbus, Indiana, a kind of industrial and farmland place. ↗

— Stephen Sprouse

#farmland #grew #i #indiana #industrial

I'll follow him to the ends of the earth,' she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn't have any ends. Columbus fixed that. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#flat-earth #love #life

Imperialism creates the illusion of wealth as far as the masses are concerned. It usually serves to hide the fact that the ruling classes are gobbling up the natural resources of the home territory in an improvident manner and are otherwise utilizing the national wealth largely for their own purposes. Eventually the general public is called upon to pay for all of this, frequently after the military machine can no longer maintain external aggression. ↗

— Jack D. Forbes

#columbus #disease #wétiko #nature