The 31th of May, I perceived in the same water more of those Animals, as also some that were somewhat bigger.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKThe 31th of May, I perceived in the same water more of those Animals, as also some that were somewhat bigger.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKThis particle I concluded to be the heart.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKFor, the circumference of one of these little Animals in water, is not so big as the thickness of a hair in a Cheese-mite.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKWhenever I found something remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people be informed thereof.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKIn the year 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rain water.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKI’ve never taught one, because if I taught one, I’d have to teach others. I would give myself over to a slavery, whereas I want to stay a free man.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKFor my part, I would say that the male sperm and seeds of plants have been penetrated so far that there is nothing further to discover in this great secret, but I could err in my opinion.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKHow little do we discover in comparison of those things which now are and forever will be hidden from our sight? The whole of which I am fully persuaded no one will ever be able to dive into, and to explain their causes and effects.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKI have oft-times been besought, by divers gentlemen, to set down on paper what I have beheld through my newly invented microscopia, but I have generally declined.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK[M]y work, which I’ve done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than in most other men.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKHow inscrutable and incomprehensible are the hidden works of Nature!
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKFor my part, I hold it equally impossible for a small shellfish to be produced without generation as for a whale to have its origin from the mud.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKI saw this vast number of animalcules not all through the semen, but only in the liquid matter adhering to the thicker part.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKAnd I judge that some of these little creatures were above a thousand times smaller than the smallest ones I have ever yet seen, upon the rind of cheese, in wheaten flour, mould, and the like.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKIn it, that sometimes more than a thousand were moving about in an amount of material the size of a grain of sand…
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEKI’ve spent more time than many will believe [making microscopic observations], but I’ve done them with joy, and I’ve taken no notice those who have said why take so much trouble and what good is it?
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK