Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

I have observed that the smallest living creatures are capable of surviving for long periods without food or water.

I have discovered that the smallest living creatures are capable of reproducing by division, without sexual reproduction.

I have seen that the smallest living creatures are capable of forming spores and cysts, to survive unfavorable conditions.

I have observed that the smallest living creatures are capable of moving by means of flagella and cilia.

I have discovered that the smallest living creatures are capable of producing light, like fireflies.

I have seen that the smallest living creatures are capable of producing electricity, like electric eels.

I have observed that the smallest living creatures are capable of producing sound, like crickets.

I have discovered that the smallest living creatures are capable of producing odors, like flowers.

I have seen that the smallest living creatures are capable of producing colors, like butterflies.

I have observed that the smallest living creatures are capable of forming complex patterns and structures.

I have discovered that the smallest living creatures are capable of learning and remembering.

In the year of 1675 I discovered living creatures in rain water, which had stood but few days in a new earthen pot, glazed blew within.

My 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.

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.

I have oft-times been beset with thoughts of the causes of many things, and I have been strengthened in my opinion that we are not to take that for granted, which is commonly asserted, without examining it.

A man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.

For my part, I hold that the all-wise God has so ordered things, that the more we see of his wonderful works, the more we shall be inclined to praise and adore him.

These little animals were, to my eye, more than ten thousand times smaller than the animalcule which Swammerdam has portrayed, and called by the name of Water-flea, or Water-louse, which you can see alive and moving in water with the bare eye.

I observed... in the same water more than 30,000 living creatures... and in some places more than 40,000.

I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving.