How did Columbus manage it, Boldly creating a future? Only because he knew so little of how futures could go wrong (…) only because of ignorance could he shape the world so fearlessly.

Orson Scott Card, Pastwatch (pp 294-95)

Also by being a fucking asshole, seriously, read about some of the shit he did to those poor indigenous folks in the Caribbean.

(via airyairyquitecontrary)
Source: spockvarietyhour
believe me it's a major plot point of the bookColumbus and his seamen were little shitsbut the subtitle to Past watch is the Redemption of Christopher Columbus