William Harvey

The blood is the generative part, the fountain of life, the first to live, the last to die.

The heart is the beginning of life; the sun of the microcosm.

The ventricles of the heart drive the blood through the lungs and through the body at large.

Thus the blood is driven into a round by a circular motion in the vessels, and it moves perpetually.

I offer no apology for my temerity in publishing these my thoughts; for I believe that I have discovered the true cause of the motion of the blood.

It is manifest that the blood passes through the lungs and heart by the action of the ventricles.

The heart, like the prince in a kingdom, in whose hands lie the chief and highest authority, rules over all.

All the arteries of the body arise from the great artery, and this from the heart.

The blood, therefore, is driven into a round by a circular motion in the vessels, and it moves perpetually.

The veins are the vessels which carry the blood back to the heart.

The heart is a muscle of a peculiar kind, endowed with a motive power of its own.

The left ventricle, by its contraction, sends the blood into the aorta and through the arteries of the body.

The right ventricle sends the blood through the pulmonary artery to the lungs.

Thus, by the ceaseless pulsation of the heart, the blood is propelled, and returns to it again.

The motion of the blood is constant and circular.

I have found the task truly a difficult one, full of anxiety and toil.

The heart is the first part that exists in the embryo, and it contains within itself blood, life, sensation, and motion.

The blood in the living animal is never at rest.

The heart is the chief organ of the body, the sun of the microcosm, as the sun itself might be called the heart of the world.

The arteries are the vessels which carry the blood from the heart to all parts of the body.