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

Alexander Fleming

The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.

Alexander Fleming

Never to neglect an extraordinary appearance or happening.

Alexander Fleming

Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy.

Alexander Fleming

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

Alexander Fleming

Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.

Alexander Fleming

I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did.

Alexander Fleming

The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.

Alexander Fleming

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 enterprise, thought, and perception of an individual.

Alexander Fleming

One sometimes finds what one is not looking for.

Alexander Fleming

Nature makes penicillin; I just found it.

Alexander Fleming

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

Alexander Fleming