Dutch - Scientist | 1632 - 1723
Man comes not from an egg but from an animalcule that is found in male sperm.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
ManEggFoundSpermMale
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.
GrowthColdWoodsWarmGrowingOak
I now found that the spider cannot fix its thread to anything without imprinting the hind part of its body on the place, by which pressure it emits an incredible number of excessively small threads diverging in every direction from whence we may conclude that as soon as the threads are exposed to the air, they lose their viscosity or gluey quality.
QualitySmallDirectionPressureNow
How little do we discover in comparison of 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.
I AmNowWillSightHiddenDive
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.
SmallImpossibleGenerationMudHold
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.
SuccessViewAnimalsBloodReason
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.
TimeAdmitNowAnimalsBloodSingle
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!
LifeGoodMotherGodTimeYoung
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.
MyselfManSlaveryFreeWantNever
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.
GreatPlantsSeedsOpinionNothing
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.
SheepTrueMoreOutLittleMay
I must confess... I don't know any tongue but the Nether-Dutch.
TongueKnowMustConfessAny
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