Last Updated on August 20, 2020 by Scott M. Thomas
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek is one of the few famous scientists we see in the world. He was a businessman and a Dutch scientist. Antonie has made many famous sayings in his life. The statements he made about science, business, and life are truly remarkable. We have tried to collect some of it here. I hope this Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek quotes help you to know him better.
The question is, why is Antonie famous for? Because he is the father of microbiologists. Antonie is the first person who observed the microorganisms. He laid the foundation of plant anatomy and an expert on animal reproduction.
“Whenever I find 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
“Man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.” – 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 of those who have said why take so much trouble and what good is it?” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“In the year 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rainwater.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“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
“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
“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
“[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. 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
“Man comes not from an egg but from an animalcule that is found in male sperm.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“Passing just lately over this lake, … and examining this water next day, I found floating therein divers earthy particles, and some green streaks, spirally wound serpent-wise, and orderly arranged, after the manner of the copper or tin worms, which distillers use to cool their liquors as they distil over. 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 Spirogyra.]” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“I observed certain animalcules, within whole bodies I saw so quick a motion as to exceed belief.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“How little do we discover in comparison to 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
“Examining this water…I found floating therein divers earthy particles, and some green streaks, spirally wound serpent-wise…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
“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
“I have divers times examined the same matter (human semen) from a healthy man… not from a sick man… nor spoiled by keeping… for a long time and not liquefied after the lapse of some time… but immediately after ejaculation before six beats of the pulse had intervened; and I have seen so great a number of living animalcules… in it, that sometimes more than a thousand were moving about in an amount of material the size of a grain of sand… 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
“The 31th of May, I perceived in the same water more of those Animals, as also some that were somewhat bigger. 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) 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: 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 Leeuwenhoek
“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
“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
“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, ten hundred thousand of them could not equal the dimensions of a grain of such coarse Sand. There was discovered by me a fifth sort, which was near the thickness of the former, but they were almost twice as long. The first time bacteria were observed.” – 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
“I have endeavoured to see and to know, what parts the Blood consists of; and at length I have observed, taking some Blood out of my own hand, that it consists of small round globules driven through a Crystalline humidity or water.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“Please bear in mind that my observations and thoughts are the outcome of my own unaided impulse and curiosity alone; for, besides myself, in our town there be no philosophers who practice this art, so pray, take not amiss my poor pen and the liberty I here take in setting down my random notions.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“If any person examines by the microscope that part towards the extremity of the spider’s body from whence its thread proceeds, he will observe the spot to be, as it were, surrounded by five several protuberances or risings, each ending in a point and altogether forming a kind of enclosure.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“We have seen so many, and those of his [Leeuwenhoek] most surprising discoveries, so perfectly confirmed by great numbers of the most curious and judicious Observers, that there can surely be no reason to distrust his accuracy in those others which have not yet been so frequently or carefully examined.” – 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
“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 a plausible reason which I can grasp. This is the more true since I have no other purpose than to place truth before my eyes so far as it is in my power to embrace it; and to use the little talent I have received to draw the world away from its old heathenish superstitions and to go over to the truth and to stick to it.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“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
“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
“In the year of 1657 I discovered very small living creatures in rainwater.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“I must confess… I don’t know any tongue but the Nether-Dutch.” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
“How inscrutable and incomprehensible are the hidden works of Nature!” – 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
“In treating 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
“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
“How inscrutable and incomprehensible are the hidden works of Nature!” – 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
“People who look for the first time through a microscope say, ‘Now I see this, and then I see that,’ and even a skilled observer can be fooled. On these observations I have spent more time than many will believe, but I have done them with joy, and I have taken no notice of those who have said, ‘Why take so much trouble,’ and, ‘What good is it?” – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
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