Columbus Day Quotes

“It’s like, how did Columbus discover America when the Indians were already here? What kind of shit is that, but white people’s shit?”
― Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography

“In 1492, the natives discovered they were indians, discovered they lived in America, discovered they were naked, discovered that the Sin existed, discovered they owed allegiance to a King and Kingdom from another world and a God from another sky, and that this God had invented the guilty and the dress, and had sent to be burnt alive who worships the Sun the Moon the Earth and the Rain that wets it.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Los hijos de los días

“En 1492, los nativos descubrieron que eran indios, descubrieron que vivían en América, descubrieron que estaban desnudos, descubrieron que existía el pecado, descubrieron que debían obediencia a un rey y a una reina de otro mundo y a un dios de otro cielo, y que ese dios había inventado la culpa y el vestido y había mandado que fuera quemado vivo quien adorara al sol y a la luna y a la tierra y a la lluvia que la moja.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Los hijos de los días

“Be a Columbus smell the fragrance of the new lands and discover them.”
― Amit Ray, Peace Bliss Beauty and Truth: Living with Positivity

“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, At Home: A Short History of Private Life

“Advice to explorers everywhere: if you would like to recieve due credit for your discoveries, keep a detailed account of your journeys as Columbus did. On Septemeber 28, 1492, after four weeks at sea, he writes: Dear diary...I means journal. Yes, dear journal. That's what I meant to say. Whew. Anyway, we have yet to discover America, and the crew has become increasingly rebellious. I have decided to turn back if we have not spotted it by Columbus Day. Will write again later if not killed by crew. P.S. Last night's buffet was fabulous, the ice sculptures magnificent.”
― Cuthbert Soup, Another Whole Nother Story

“The history of the world is a whitewashed history, where great many facts are distorted to maintain white supremacy – such as Columbus discovering America or Gandhi liberating India – Gandhi didn’t liberate India, Subhas Chandra Bose did and Columbus never even set foot on America.”
― Abhijit Naskar, When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation

“Fellow Italians: stop getting all bent out of shape about Christopher Columbus getting the same treatment as the Confederates. He was a horrible man, a horrible representative for our people, and not that special. Any asshole can get lost in a boat.”
― Allison Robicelli

“It's time we stop celebrating October 11 as Columbus Day and consider it as "Repentance Day", to acknowledge, and make amends for, the appalling atrocities committed by mindless and heartless oppressors like Columbus.”
― Abhijit Naskar, When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation

“Popular belief considers Christopher Columbus as some sort of hero, while in reality he was a murderer. While the world admires him as a brave explorer, all this brainless buffoon did was sail around the Caribbean and slaughtered innocent natives who greeted him with nothing but hospitality. You don't discover a land where people are already living. On top of that, when someone invades their land and starts looting, pillaging and slaughtering, he is neither brave, nor an explorer, he's just a petty thief and brut.”
― Abhijit Naskar, When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation

“Pearls are perfection provided by nature. They are the only gems that do not require enhancing by man.”
― Peter Von Perle

“Blood and Blunder
(The Sonnet)

The world is filled with atrocious holidays,
Columbus Day, Australia Day and Thanksgiving.
Holidays steeped in blood and blunder, are
passed on proudly as occasion of merrymaking.

Imagine celebrating 9/11 as a day of freedom,
Yet colonizers do exactly that without shame.
And these animal holidays are a thousand times
more atrocious than the crash of nine eleven.

Nine eleven is a ghastly stain upon history,
there is no doubt or question about that.
But what about the infinitely larger stains,
inflicted, respected and celebrated by cowards!

Human rights can never prevail till we
dismantle every false celebration.
Animals find honor in blood and blunder,
We become human through course correction.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee