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In the year 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rain water.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

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 LEEUWENHOEK

Amount Grain Material More Move Sand Size Sometimes Thousand
In the year 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rain water.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK

Creature Discover Live Rain Water
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

Creature Equal Eye Grain Hope Incredibly Judge Length Move Sand Small Sort Through
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

Alternative Among Anmalcule ContrAction Head Moorningm Consist Place Swift Thing
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

Cheese Creature Ever Judge Mould Seen Smaller Some Thousand Upon
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

Biology Discover Errors Greatness Myself Opinion Plant Science Secret
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

Blood Consist Crystalline Diver Driven Endeavor Globulus Hand Humidity Know Length Round Small Taking Through Timer Water
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

Discovery Down Duty Found Inform People Remarkable Something
Examining this water…I found floating therein divers earthy particles, and some green streaks, spirally wound serpent-wise.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK

Diver Earth Examine Float Found Green Particle Serpent Some Streak Water Wise Wound
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

Bee Cheese Creature Horse Make Mite One Proportion Small Water
I 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

Decline Invention Myself Paper Time
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

Equality Hold Myself Origin Production Small
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

Believe Goodness Myself Observation Time Trouble
Man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK

Accomplishment Busy Himself Man Thinking
The whole circumference of each of these streaks was about the thickness of a hair of one’s head. … all consisted of very small green globules joined together: and there were very many small green globules as well. [The earliest recorded observation of the common green alga Spyrogyra.]
ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK

Circumstance Consist Each Other Examining Globule Green Small Well Whole
[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

Chiefly Crave Done Knowledge Men More Praise Pursue Time Work