TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “The Superfund legislation... may prove to be as far-reaching and important as any accomplishment of my administration. The reduction of the threat to America's health and safety from thousands of toxic-waste sites will continue to be an urgent�issue �”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index F > Category: Flea

Flea Quotes (11 quotes)

Adam is fading out. It is on account of Darwin and that crowd. I can see that he is not going to last much longer. There's a plenty of signs. He is getting belittled to a germ—a little bit of a speck that you can't see without a microscope powerful enough to raise a gnat to the size of a church. They take that speck and breed from it: first a flea; then a fly, then a bug, then cross these and get a fish, then a raft of fishes, all kinds, then cross the whole lot and get a reptile, then work up the reptiles till you've got a supply of lizards and spiders and toads and alligators and Congressmen and so on, then cross the entire lot again and get a plant of amphibiums, which are half-breeds and do business both wet and dry, such as turtles and frogs and ornithorhyncuses and so on, and cross-up again and get a mongrel bird, sired by a snake and dam'd by a bat, resulting in a pterodactyl, then they develop him, and water his stock till they've got the air filled with a million things that wear feathers, then they cross-up all the accumulated animal life to date and fetch out a mammal, and start-in diluting again till there's cows and tigers and rats and elephants and monkeys and everything you want down to the Missing Link, and out of him and a mermaid they propagate Man, and there you are! Everything ship-shape and finished-up, and nothing to do but lay low and wait and see if it was worth the time and expense.
'The Refuge of the Derelicts' collected in Mark Twain and John Sutton Tuckey, The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings (1980), 340-41. - 1980
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Adam (7)  |  Air (366)  |  Amphibian (7)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Bat (10)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Bug (10)  |  Business (156)  |  Church (64)  |  Cow (42)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Develop (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Dry (65)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expense (21)  |  Feather (13)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fly (153)  |  Frog (44)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gnat (7)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Lot (151)  |  Low (86)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mermaid (5)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Missing (21)  |  Missing Link (4)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Plant (320)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Pterodactyl (2)  |  Rat (37)  |  Reptile (33)  |  See (1094)  |  Ship (69)  |  Snake (29)  |  Speck (25)  |  Spider (14)  |  Start (237)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tiger (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toad (10)  |  Turtle (8)  |  Wait (66)  |  Want (504)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

Adam
Had ’em.
Anonymous
Poem (1904) answering the question: How old are fleas?. 'On the Antiquity of Microbes', Strickland W. Gillilan. For some years it was considered the shortest poem until 'Lines on the Questionable Importance of the Individual': “I … Why?” appeared from Anon. (As quoted in S.N. Behrman, The New Yorker (27 May 1972), 38-81. In The Lyceum News (1911), 2, No. 1, 15, it is noted that 14-year-old Charles E. Varney, Jr. recited the poem in his English class, but the teacher said the assignment had specified a poem to be complete in at least four lines long. So he continued: “Well’m / I'll add ’em / So had / Madam.”
Science quotes on:  |  Adam (7)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microbiology (11)  |  Poem (104)

But however secure and well-regulated civilized life may become, bacteria, Protozoa, viruses, infected fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes, and bedbugs will always lurk in the shadows ready to pounce when neglect, poverty, famine, or war lets down the defenses.
Rats, Lice and History (1934), 13-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Become (821)  |  Bedbug (2)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Defense (26)  |  Down (455)  |  Famine (18)  |  Infection (27)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lurk (5)  |  Mosquito (16)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Pounce (4)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Protozoa (6)  |  Secure (23)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Tick (9)  |  Virus (32)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)

But in my opinion we can now be assured sufficiently that no animals, however small they may be, take their origin in putrefaction, but exclusively in procreation… For seeing that animals, from the largest down to the little despised animal, the flea, have animalcules in their semen, seeing also that some of the vessels of the lungs of horses and cows consist of rings and that these rings can occur on the flea's veins, why cannot we come to the conclusion that as well as the male sperm of that large animal the horse and similar animals, and of all manner of little animals, the flea included, is furnished with animalcules (and other intestines, for I have often been astonished when I beheld the numerous vessels in a flea), why, I say should not the male sperm of the smallest animals, smaller than a flea may even the very smallest animalcules have the perfection that we find in a flea.
Letter to Robert Hooke, 12 Nov 1680. In The Collected Letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1957), Vol. 3, 329.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animalcule (12)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cow (42)  |  Down (455)  |  Find (1014)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Horse (78)  |  Intestine (16)  |  Large (398)  |  Largest (39)  |  Little (717)  |  Lung (37)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Procreation (4)  |  Say (989)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Semen (5)  |  Small (489)  |  Sperm (7)  |  Vein (27)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Why (491)

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn have, greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
[He was imitating: 'So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum.' Poetry, a Rhapsody, by Jonathan Swift.]
A Budget of Paradoxes (1915), first published 1872, Vol. 2, 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Ad Infinitum (5)  |  Back (395)  |  Bite (18)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Little (717)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Observe (179)  |  Poem (104)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Still (614)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Turn (454)

Let him who so wishes take pleasure in boring us with all the wonders of nature: let one spend his life observing insects, another counting the tiny bones in the hearing membrane of certain fish, even in measuring, if you will, how far a flea can jump, not to mention so many other wretched objects of study; for myself, who am curious only about philosophy, who am sorry only not to be able to extend its horizons, active nature will always be my sole point of view; I love to see it from afar, in its breadth and its entirety, and not in specifics or in little details, which, although to some extent necessary in all the sciences, are generally the mark of little genius among those who devote themselves to them.
'L'Homme Plante', in Oeuvres Philosophiques de La Mettrie (1796), Vol. 2, 70-1. Jacques Roger, The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought, edited by Keith R. Benson and trans. Robert Ellrich (1997), 377.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Bone (101)  |  Boring (7)  |  Breadth (15)  |  Certain (557)  |  Counting (26)  |  Curious (95)  |  Detail (150)  |  Ear (69)  |  Entirety (6)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fish (130)  |  Genius (301)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Insect (89)  |  Jump (31)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Mention (84)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  See (1094)  |  Sole (50)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Specific (98)  |  Spend (97)  |  Study (701)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Tiny (74)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wretched (8)

The suppression of crime is not entirely a legal question. It is a problem for the physician, the economist and the lawyer. We, as physicians, should encourage the criminologist by lending to him the surgeon, the internist and all of the rest of the resources of medicine, just as we have done in the case of the flea man, the fly man, the mosquito man, the bed-bug man and all the other ologists.
From paper read at the Section on State Medicine and Public Hygiene of the State Medical Association of Texas at El Paso (11 May 1922), 'The Use Of Scopolamine In Criminology', published in Texas State Journal of Medicine (Sep 1922). Reprinted in The American Journal of Police Science (Jul-Aug 1931), 2, No. 4, 328.
Science quotes on:  |  Bedbug (2)  |  Case (102)  |  Crime (39)  |  Economist (20)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Fly (153)  |  Internist (2)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Legal (9)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mosquito (16)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physician (284)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Resource (74)  |  Rest (287)  |  Suppression (9)  |  Surgeon (64)

The Vermin only teaze and pinch
Their foes superior by an Inch.
So, Naturalists observe, a Flea
Hath smaller Fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller Fleas to bite 'em.
And so proceed ad infinitum.
On Poetry: A Rhapsody (1735), lines 339-44.
Science quotes on:  |  Ad Infinitum (5)  |  Back (395)  |  Bite (18)  |  Foe (11)  |  Inch (10)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Pinch (6)  |  Prey (13)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Smaller (4)  |  Superior (88)  |  Tease (2)  |  Vermin (3)

There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher; they exist only in romantic legend. Many of them have committed suicide; many others have turned their children out of doors and beaten their wives. And no wonder. If you want to find out how a philosopher feels when he is engaged in the practise of his profession, go to the nearest zoo and watch a chimpanzee at the wearying and hopeless job of chasing fleas. Both suffer damnably, and neither can win.
From The Human Mind, Prejudices: Sixth Series (1927), 85. Collected in A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949, 1956), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Beat (42)  |  Both (496)  |  Children (201)  |  Chimpanzee (14)  |  Door (94)  |  Exist (458)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Happy (108)  |  History (716)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human History (7)  |  If You Want To Find (4)  |  Job (86)  |  Legend (18)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Practise (7)  |  Profession (108)  |  Record (161)  |  Romantic (13)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Turn (454)  |  Want (504)  |  Watch (118)  |  Weary (11)  |  Wife (41)  |  Win (53)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Zoo (9)

Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man. But they don’t bite everybody.
Unkempt Thoughts (1962), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Bite (18)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Jump (31)  |  Man (2252)  |  Thought (995)

To be born, to live and to die is merely to change forms... And what does one form matter any more than another?... Each form has its own sort of happiness and unhappiness. From the elephant down to the flea... from the flea down to the sensitive and living molecule which is the origin of all, there is not a speck in the whole of nature that does not feel pain or pleasure.
D'Alembert's Dream (1769), in Rameau's Nephew and D' Alembert's Dream, trans. Leonard Tancock (Penguin edition 1966), 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Down (455)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Feel (371)  |  Form (976)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Origin (250)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Speck (25)  |  Unhappiness (9)  |  Whole (756)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.