In my first publication I might have claimed that I had come to the conclusion, as a result of serious study of the literature and deep thought, that….

I have been trying to point out that in our lives chance may have an astonishing influence and, if I may offer advice to the young laboratory worker,….

Suggested remedy for the common cold: A good gulp of whiskey at bedtime-it's not very scientific, but it helps..

Penicillin sat on a shelf for ten years while I was called a quack..

It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise,….

One sometimes finds what one is not looking for..

Nature makes penicillin; I just found it..

It has been demonstrated that a species of penicillium produces in culture a very powerful antibacterial substance which affects different bacteria i….

It was astonishing that for some considerable distance around the mould growth the staphococcal colonies were undergoing lysis. What had formerly bee….

I play with microbes. There are, of course, many rules to this play...but when you have acquired knowledge and experience it is very pleasant to brea….

It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and th….

(The discovery of penicillin) was a triumph of accident, a fortunate occurrence which happened while I was working on a purely academic bacteriologic….

One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medic….

For the birth of something new, there has to be a happening. Newton saw an apple fall; James Watt watched a kettle boil; Roentgen fogged some photogr….

The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity..

If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life..

Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy..