William Harvey

The circulation of the blood is a truth which is so simple, that it is wonderful how it could have escaped the observation of so many great men.

I have not been deterred by the difficulty of the subject, or by the novelty of the opinion.

The blood is the universal menstruum, which dissolves and assimilates all the food that is taken into the body.

I profess to learn and to teach anatomy not from books but from dissections, not from the tenets of Philosophers but from the fabric of Nature.

Nature is nowhere accustomed more openly to display her secret mysteries than in cases where she shows tracings of her workings apart from the beaten paths.

There is a circulation of the blood, such as I have described, in a circle, made by the heart and the vessels.

The blood in the animal body is impelled in a circle, and is in a state of ceaseless motion.

It is absolutely necessary to conclude that the blood in the animal body is impelled in a circle, and is in a state of ceaseless motion.

The heart is situated at the 4th and 5th ribs.

I began to think whether there might not be a MOTION, AS IT WERE, IN A CIRCLE.

What remains to be said upon the quantity and source of the blood which thus passes, is of so novel and unheard-of character, that I not only fear injury to myself from the envy of a few, but I tremble lest I have mankind at large for my enemies.

But what remains to be said on the quantity and source of the blood that thus passes is of a character so novel and unheard of that I not only fear danger to myself from the envy of a few, but I tremble lest I have mankind at large for my enemies.

The movement of the blood occurs constantly in a circular manner and is the result of the beating of the heart.

Thus it is that by means of the two ventricles acting alternately, the blood is driven into the two sets of vessels, and the circulation is maintained.

The heart alone of all the viscera, and indeed of all the parts of the body, is the one that is born before the others, and dies last.

I have often wondered and even laughed at those who fancied that everything had been so consummately and absolutely investigated by an Aristotle or a Galen or some other mighty name, that nothing could by any possibility be added to their knowledge.

There is no perfect knowledge which can be entitled ours, that is innate; all that we have is acquired.

It is even so: Nature is nowhere accustomed more openly to display her secret mysteries than in cases where she shows traces of her workings apart from the beaten paths.

The study of Nature is a perpetual feast; the food is always new, and always nourishing.

All animals have a heart, and in all it is the principle of their life.