In 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 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.
More Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Quotes
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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 -
This particle I concluded to be the heart.
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 -
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 -
Examining this water…I found floating therein divers earthy particles, and some green streaks, spirally wound serpent-wise.
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 -
[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 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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
The 31th of May, I perceived in the same water more of those Animals, as also some that were somewhat bigger.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
For 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 LEEUWENHOEK -
Ten hundred thousand of them could not equal the dimensions of a grain of such course Sand.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK -
How inscrutable and incomprehensible are the hidden works of Nature!
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK