“1492: Conquest of Paradise” quotes

“- Arojaz: It won't be easy to get rid of your prophet now.
- Sanchez: On the contrary. It seems to me the man is preparing his own cross.”

Kario Salem - Arojaz
Armand Assante - Sanchez

“- Arojaz: If God intended our proximity to Asia, do you believe that He would have waited for you to show it to the world?
- Columbus: He chose a carpenter's son to reveal Himself to the world.
- Arojaz: So you consider yourself the chosen one?”
Kario Salem - Arojaz
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Sanchez: I see rooftops, I see palaces, I see towers, I see spires that reach... to the sky! I see civilisation!
- Columbus: All of them built by people like me. No matter how long you live, Sanchez, there is something that will never change between us. I did it. You didn't.”
Armand Assante - Sanchez
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Antonio de Marchena: The men you are about the confront have no emotions. You must learn to control your passion.
- Columbus: Passion is something one cannot control.”

Fernando Rey - Marchena

“- Queen Isabella I.: The costs would be ruinous.
- Sanchez: No more than the costs of two state banquettes.”

Sigourney Weaver - Queen Isabel of Castille
Armand Assante - Sanchez

“- Brother Buyl: You treat Christians equally with heathen savages. What do you offer in return?
- Columbus: A New World, Buyl.”
John Heffernan - Brother Buyl
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Queen Isabella I.: I shouldn't tolerate his impertinence.
- Sanchez: Then why?
- Queen Isabella I.: Because he is not afraid of me.”

Sigourney Weaver - Queen Isabel of Castille
Armand Assante - Sanchez

“- Sanchez: You seem to have a special talent for making enemies.
- Columbus: Why? Do I have so many already?
- Sanchez: Don't you think to rise so high in so short of time is a dangerous occupation?”
Armand Assante - Sanchez
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Columbus: Why do you want to help me?
- Santangel: Faith, hope, charity. But greater than all these is banking.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus
Frank Langella - Santangel

“- Queen Isabella I.: I thought he was an idealist.
- Duenna: Idealism and ambition are not incompatible.”

Sigourney Weaver - Queen Isabel of Castille
Isabel Prinz - Duenna

“We are trying to adapt to the Indian diet. Meat is only a memory for us.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Antonio de Marchena: Two minutes and you're already a dead man.
- Columbus: For telling the truth?
- Antonio de Marchena: Yes. They are burning people for less.”

Fernando Rey - Marchena

“Riches don't make a man rich, they only make him busier.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“We come in peace and with honor. They are not savages, neither will we be. Treat them as you would your own wives and children. Respect their beliefs. Pillage will be punished by the whip. Rape, by the sword.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Queen Isabella I.: The New World is a disaster.
- Columbus: And the old one an achievement?”
Sigourney Weaver - Queen Isabel of Castille
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“October 21st, 1492. I think we have returned to Eden. Surely this is how the world was in the beginning of time. If the natives are to be converted to our ways, then it will be by persuasion and not by force. I believe no man will ever see this land again as we do, for the fist time.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“I've always found that the independent mind is dangerous. If the man had wings, no doubt he would return from the skies to tell us the Heavens are empty.”
Kario Salem - Arojaz

“All my life I have dreamt of reaching the continent. I thought my dreams grandiose. But reality was beyond my expectations. Far beyond. And now I want to explore that land before I die.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“The fascinating thing about power is that what can be given so effortlessly can so easily be taken away.”
Armand Assante - Sanchez

“Every man is afraid when he does something for the first time. But those who overcome their fears will rightly earn their rewards.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Columbus: I believe the Indies are no more than 750 leagues west of the Canary Islands.
- Antonio de Marchena: How can you be so certain?
- Columbus: The calculations of Toscanelli, Marin de Tyr, Esdras...
- Antonio de Marchena: Esdras is a Jew...
- Columbus: So was Christ.”
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus
Fernando Rey - Marchena

“- Antonio de Marchena: If God intends you to go, you will go.
- Columbus: Damn God! Damn of all of you! You all sit at your desks concocting theories! Based on what? You never leave the protection of your gardens. Go out! Find out what the world is about and then tell me something I can accept.”
Fernando Rey - Marchena
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Sanchez: You are too ambitious.
- Columbus: And were you never ambitious? Or is ambition only a virtue among nobles and a fault for the rest of us?”
Armand Assante - Sanchez
Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

We cannot be lost as long as we keep faith in God and in ourselves. In time they will talk about the courage of the first men who crossed this ocean and returned. And then you will be able to say to them: "I was on the Pinta, I was on the Nina and the Santa Maria".

Gérard Depardieu - Columbus

“- Arojaz: What a tragedy. What a waste of a life.
- Sanchez: A waste? Well, if your name or mine is ever remembered it will only because of his.”

Kario Salem - Arojaz
Armand Assante - Sanchez