lwoodbloo | (no subject)

There's a great quote in Garrett Mattingly's book, Armada, which is an account of the Spanish Armada's defeat at the hands of the British navy in 1588. Cardinal Montalto, in a discussion with an emissary of the pope, is asked if he thinks that the Spanish will defeat the English. "Most Certainly". How do you know this? "Well, we know g-d is on our side. Therefore, he will provide a favorable wind to allow us to grapple the British ships and allow us to go into hand to hand with them, or he'll addle the brains of Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher and make them do that anyway. So, we're going to win on the basis of a miracle".

I'm getting my copy back and writing this up, verbatim. It's too good not to have somewhere.