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 More Quotes by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek More Quotes From 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 without generation small impossible We will admit that, out of the mud or sand which is found on the seashore or the beds of our rivers, at low water, shellfish or testaceous animals come forth, but it does not from thence by any means follow that they are produced without any regular course of generation. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek generation will sand water In rain water, I observed a small red worm and two other kinds of very minute insects; of those of the larger size, I judged that 30,000 together would not equal a coarse sand. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek red together rain water 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 animals view success blood If we now plainly perceive that the passage of the blood from the arteries into the veins of the tadpole is not performed in any other than those vessels, which are so minute as only to admit the passage of a single globule at a time, we may conclude that the same is performed in like manner in our own bodies and in those of other animals. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek own single time blood Life lives on life - it is cruel, but it is God's will. And it is for our good, of course, because if there weren't little animals to eat up the young mussels, our canals would be choked by those shellfish, for each mother has more than a thousand young ones at a time! Antonie van Leeuwenhoek good god mother life 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 never myself man slavery Man comes not from an egg but from an animalcule that is found in male sperm. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek sperm egg man found 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 true more just sheep In treating of the oak, I have considered that the species of it growing in warm climates is superior to that which is produced in cold countries. But we must not imagine this to be the case with all woods; on the contrary, the fir timber grown in cold countries is superior to that produced in warm ones, where its growth is rapid. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek warm cold woods growth No one can pretend to say that a fish is ever killed by heat, for many kinds of fish, in the middle of summer, and in the burning heat of the sun, do either play, as it were, on the surface of the water, or hide themselves under the leaves, weeds, or other substances at the bottom. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek fish hide sun water 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 plants nothing great opinion I must confess... I don't know any tongue but the Nether-Dutch. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek confess must know tongue 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 down been through paper I have lately examined water, in which beaten pepper was steeped, and found two sorts of animals for shape, and each of those sorts to contain greater and smaller kinds: the greater I supposed the elder, the less the younger. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek shape animals water two
