“No, there is now no circumstance known in which it can be affirmed that microscopic beings came into the world without germs, without parents similar to themselves.”

— Louis Pasteur, Soirées scientifiques de la Sorbonne (1864), translation from The Life of Pasteur, p. 142

About Louis Pasteur

1822 – 1895

French chemist and microbiologist who developed pasteurization and helped establish the germ theory of disease.

“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”

“In the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind.”

“There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science.”

“From a Child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books.”

“If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.”

“Listen therefore to your elder brother, and you should be obedient to your elder sister as if she were your mother.”

“You can live without a father who accepts you, but you cannot live without a world that makes some sense to you.”

“Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death.”

“My father invested his money so securely in the banking business that he was never able to get any of it out again.”