For, 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 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.
More Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Quotes
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In the year 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rain water.
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 LEEUWENHOEK -
I make the proportion of one of these small Water-creatures to a Cheese-mite, to be like that of a Bee to a Horse:
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
My determination is not to remain stubbornly with my ideas, but I’ll leave them and go over to others as soon as I am shown plausible reasons which I can grasp.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
I observed certain animalcules, within whole bodies I saw so quick a motion as to exceed belief; they were about the size of a large grain of sand, and their bodies being transparent, that the internal motion could plainly be seen.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
Man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
Among other things, I saw in the body of one of these animalcules a bright and round corpuscle, placed near the head, and in which a very wonderful swift motion was to be seen, consisting of an alternate extension and contraction.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
This particle I concluded to be the heart.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
For 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 LEEUWENHOEK -
I have divers times endeavoured to see and to know, what parts the Blood consists of; and at length I have observ’d, taking some Blood out of my own hand, that it consists of small round globuls driven through a Crystalline humidity or water.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
And therewithal, whenever I found out anything remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
And 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 LEEUWENHOEK -
In the year 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rain water.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
Examining this water…I found floating therein divers earthy particles, and some green streaks, spirally wound serpent-wise.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
I’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 LEEUWENHOEK -
I’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 -
How 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 LEEUWENHOEK -
I have often endeavoured to view the circulation of the blood in terrestrial animals, but without success, by reason that no parts of their bodies were sufficiently transparent.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
I have divers times endeavoured to see and to know, what parts the Blood consists of; and at length I have observ’d, taking some Blood out of my own hand, that it consists of small round globuls driven through a Crystalline humidity or water.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
Man comes not from an egg but from an animalcule that is found in male sperm.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
And I imagine, that [ten hundred thousand] of these little Creatures do not equal an ordinary grain of Sand in bigness: And comparing them with a Cheese-mite (which may be seen to move with the naked eye)
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
I saw this vast number of animalcules not all through the semen, but only in the liquid matter adhering to the thicker part.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
Just as the supposed number may differ from the true number by fully 100, 150, or even 200 in a flock of 600 sheep, so may I be even more out of my reckoning in the case of these very little animalcules.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
Whenever 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 LEEUWENHOEK -
The 4th sort of creatures… which moved through the 3 former sorts, were incredibly small, and so small in my eye that I judged, that if 100 of them lay [stretched out] one by another, they would not equal the length of a grain of course Sand; and according to this estimate.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
How inscrutable and incomprehensible are the hidden works of Nature!
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK