“The two men who have done the greatest harm to the world are Christ and Columbus. Christ taught us guilt and sacrifice, to live only in the other world, and Columbus discovered America and materialism.”

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Anaïs Nin278

writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903–1977

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

'Postcard from Biarritz'
Essays and reviews, Flying Visits (1984)

“Scholars still debate whether Columbus brought syphilis to the New World or vice versa. But it cannot be doubted that the 2008 world meltdown carries on its label the words Made in America.”

Paul A. Samuelson (1915–2009) American economist

"Farewell to Friedman-Hayek Libertarian Capitalism", Tribune Media Services (2008)
New millennium

“The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“It wasn't the New World that mattered … Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky book The Idiot

The Idiot (1868–9)
Context: It wasn't the New World that mattered … Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all. But what's the use of talking! I suspect that all I'm saying now is so like the usual commonplaces that I shall certainly be taken for a lower-form schoolboy sending in his essay on "sunrise", or they'll say perhaps that I had something to say, but that I did not know how to "explain" it. But I'll add, that there is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas. But if I too have failed to convey all that has been tormenting me for the last six months, it will, anyway, be understood that I have paid very dearly for attaining my present "last conviction." This is what I felt necessary, for certain objects of my own, to put forward in my "Explanation". However, I will continue.

“The world's greatest champion of woman and womanhood is Jesus the Christ.”

James E. Talmage (1862–1933) American Mormon leader

Source: Jesus the Christ

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

This is a matter for local pride but on a larger view is not quite so stunning, since with the possible exception of the Swiss everybody discovered America before Columbus did
'Postcard from Biarritz'
Essays and reviews, Flying Visits (1984)