"I am just a simple bacteriologist who got lucky."

"I am often asked if I foresaw the impact of penicillin. My honest answer is no."

"I am sometimes asked what I think of the future of penicillin. I think it has a great future, but it must be used wisely."

"The greatest discovery of my life was not penicillin, but the fact that I was wrong about something."

"The story of penicillin has a certain romantic appeal, and I think that may be one of the reasons it has attracted so much attention. But the real story is much more prosaic."