Navigator Quotes

“The Inquisition,’ he said, ‘is the logic of our times - of your times, of this age of Christendom. The Reconquest and all your crusading has militarised Christianity, which was once a faith of love. Frightened and ignorant, terrified by the march of infidels, stirred up by holy fools and greedy monarchs, you fall willingly into the thrall of these perverted prelates.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Geoffrey Cotesford believes he now understands these words, four centuries old. This is how he has interpreted them.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“When Ojeda was done thrilling the gathered mob, a notary stepped forward and read out the crimes of each penitent. One had engaged in Jewish rituals; one had mocked the Host which was the body of Christ; one had prepared his lamb meat in accordance with Jewish instruction; and so on. They had all confessed to this when ‘put to the question’.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“James grew up believing, or at least fearing, that the world’s last days were indeed near.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Saladin was disturbed by this bloody narrative. He had thought of England as a place of Christian peace and security”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Many Arabic words have no Latin equivalents, because the scholarship is so much more advanced. So when the work of Ibn Rushd, for instance, is translated into Latin, the Arabic words are copied over as they are. Alkali. Camphor. Borax. Elixir. Algebra. Azure. Zenith. Nadir. Zero. Cipher”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Ibn Rushd,”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“But nobody wants to believe in the coming of the Mongols until they are on the doorstep.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“The maps which Thomas Busshe had studied in the monastery all showed the Holy Land as the centre of the world.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“This was going to take some sorting out the next time he was in a confessional box.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Ghalib said, ‘There are only two jobs in England. Farmers and whores.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Dioscorides”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Moraima, serving more wine, passed Robert. ‘I’m glad you haven’t bathed. I quite like the way Christians smell.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Robert said reluctantly, ‘The Pope himself says that if you fight to reclaim Christian lands from infidels, you are fighting for Christ.”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“aubergines,”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator

“Who needs wheels when Allah gave us camels?”
― Stephen Baxter, Navigator