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.

My opinion - nay more, my conviction - is that, in the present state of science, as you rightly say, spontaneous generation is a chimera; and it would be impossible for you to contradict me, for my experiments all stand forth to prove that spontaneous generation is a chimera.

The nights seem to me too long... I am often scolded by Madame Pasteur, but I tell her I shall lead her to fame.

In matters of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. (not literal translation) - Dan's les champs de observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits prepares.

It is not the germs we need worry about. It is our inner terrain.

When one works and imagines and dreams of nothing else than the search for answers that God has posed, it is difficult to be so still.

Live in the serene peace of laboratories and libraries