Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment.

In the fields of observation chance favors only those minds which are prepared.

The role of the infinitely small in nature is infinitely great.

I have the faith of a Breton peasant and by the time I die I hope to have the faith of a Breton peasant's wife.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

We affirm the neutrality of Science ... Science is of no country. ... But if Science has no country, the scientist must keep in mind all that may work towards the glory of his country. In every great scientist will be found a great patriot.

To demonstrate experimentally that a microscopic organism actually is the cause of a disease and the agent of contagion, I know no other way, in the present state of Science, than to subject the microbe (the new and happy term introduced by M. Sédillot) to the method of cultivation out of the body.