Quotes from book
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Orson Scott Card

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus is the first science fiction novel in a proposed Pastwatch series by Orson Scott Card. The book's focus is the life and activities of explorer, Christopher Columbus. Much of the action deals with a group of scientists from the future who travel back to the 15th century in order to change the pattern of European contact with the Americas. These alternate with chapters describing Columbus' career and his efforts to obtain backing to his project of travelling across the ocean - much of which can be considered as simple historical fiction.

Orson Scott Card photo

“Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Source: Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“Love is random; fear is inevitable.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Source: Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“When we intended to enjoy being cruel, we must transform our victim into either a beast or a god.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“His vices were the vices of his time and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu of his life.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“We are the actors and the audience as well, all of us. And the critics. We are also the critics.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“The older you get, the more you believe in God, whatever face he wears.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“She will look at you as women look at men, and she will judge you as women judge men — not on the strength of their arguments, and not on their cleverness or prowess in battle, but rather on the force of their character, the intensity of their passion, the strength of their soul, their compassion, and — ah, this above all — their conversation.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“You just refuse to leave them alone until they change their minds. Of their own free will.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“It was always from the love of strong women that he had found whatever joy had been granted him in his life.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“First we try to preserve ourselves, until we see that we can't. Then we try to preserve our children, until we see we can't. Then we act to preserve our kin, and then our village or tribe, and when we see we can't preserve even them, then we act in order to preserve our memory. And if we can't do that, what is left?”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“The vision of the gods without the power of the gods. What a terrible gift.A glorious gift.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“They don't know how to watch things. They don't know how to see anything but what they expect to see.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“How is clean, painless nonexistence any worse than clean, painless death?”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“You are sure your enemy is stupid because he doesn't do things as you would do them. It will make you careless, and your enemy will surprise you.”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

Orson Scott Card photo

“What sort of arrogance did she have, even to imagine reaching back into the past and making changes? Who am I, she thought, if I dare to answer prayers intended for the gods?”

Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)

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