--- title: "12 Mitochondria Quotes by 8 authors" description: "Browse 12 Mitochondria quotes by 8 authors. Discover the best Mitochondria sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97a/jonathan-franzen-801_cooks_cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity_2971679.jpg" --- > [“Cooks were the mitochondria of humanity; they had their own separate DNA, they floated in a cell and powered it but were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-franzen/cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity-they-had-their-own-separate/) [Jonathan Franzen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-franzen/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97a/jonathan-franzen-801_cooks_cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity_2971679.jpg) > [Over the long term, symbiosis is more useful than parasitism. More fun, too. Ask any mitochondria.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/larry-wall/over-the-long-term-symbiosis-is-more-useful-than-parasitism-more-fun/) [Larry Wall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/larry-wall/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cf/larry-wall-1576_asks_over-the-long-term-symbiosis-is-more-use_2160804.png) > [“Mitochondria are strange organelles in the sense that they have their own DNA and ribosomes.Therefore, mitochondria are able to make some of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/mitochondria-are-strange-organelles-in-the-sense-that-they-have-their/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/anonymous-1_evolution_mitochondria-are-strange-organelles-in-t_2681400.jpg) > [“Were it not for the melanin in our skin, myoglobin in our muscles and haemoglobin in our blood, we would be the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/guy-brown/were-it-not-for-the-melanin-in-our-skin-myoglobin-in-our-muscles-and/) [Guy Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/guy-brown/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fcf/guy-brown-74641_biology_were-it-not-for-the-melanin-in-our-skin_858939.jpg) > [“In the normal process of producing energy, each mitochondrion produces hundreds if not thousands of free radical molecules each day. Multiply that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-perlmutter/in-the-normal-process-of-producing-energy-each-mitochondrion-produces/) [David Perlmutter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-perlmutter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d27/david-perlmutter-2461_energy_in-the-normal-process-of-producing-energ_2260075.jpg) > [“I try to think up material that might apply to the subjects they are studying. How many mitochondria does it take to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-birbiglia/i-try-to-think-up-material-that-might-apply-to-the-subjects-they-are/) [Mike Birbiglia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-birbiglia/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c96/mike-birbiglia-1343_cells_i-try-to-think-up-material-that-might-ap_1206746.png) > [“Mitochondria, as we have seen, are only passed on in the egg, so all 13 mitochondrial genes come from our mothers. If…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/mitochondria-as-we-have-seen-are-only-passed-on-in-the-egg-so-all-13/) [Nick Lane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-lane/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec5/nick-lane-26984_evolution_mitochondria-as-we-have-seen-are-only-pa_2746549.jpg) > [We are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts. We are shared, rented,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/we-are-not-made-up-as-we-had-always-supposed-of-successively-enriched/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c4f/lewis-thomas-2299_cells_we-are-not-made-up-as-we-had-always-supp_1656715.png) > [My mitochondria comprise a very large proportion of me. I cannot do the calculation, but I suppose there is almost as much…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/my-mitochondria-comprise-a-very-large-proportion-of-me-i-cannot-do/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c1/lewis-thomas-2299_bacteria_my-mitochondria-comprise-a-very-large-pr_1656260.jpg) > [“Metabolically active cells, such as those of the liver, kidneys, muscles, and brain, have hundreds or thousands of mitochondria, making up some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/metabolically-active-cells-such-as-those-of-the-liver-kidneys-muscles/) [Nick Lane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-lane/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb0/nick-lane-26984_body-weight_metabolically-active-cells-such-as-those_2072369.jpg) > [“Rather surprisingly, to anyone who is most familiar with textbook mitochondria, many simple single-celled eukaryotes have mitochondria that operate in the absence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/rather-surprisingly-to-anyone-who-is-most-familiar-with-textbook/) [Nick Lane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-lane/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d92/nick-lane-26984_quote_rather-surprisingly-to-anyone-who-is-mos_648148.jpg) > [“One mitochondrion contains tens of thousands of copies of each respiratory complex. A single cell contains hundreds or thousands of mitochondria. Your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/one-mitochondrion-contains-tens-of-thousands-of-copies-of-each/) [Nick Lane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-lane/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/29c/nick-lane-26984_every-second_one-mitochondrion-contains-tens-of-thous_1540092.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mitochondria/#itemlist", "name": "Mitochondria Quotes", "numberOfItems": 12, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Cooks were the mitochondria of humanity; they had their own separate DNA, they floated in a cell and powered it but were not really of it.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jonathan Franzen" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-franzen/cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity-they-had-their-own-separate/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97a/jonathan-franzen-801_cooks_cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity_2971679.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97a/jonathan-franzen-801_cooks_cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity_2971679.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97a/jonathan-franzen-801_cooks_cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity_2971679.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Cooks were the mitochondria of humanity; they had their own separate DNA, they floated in a cell and powered…” — Jonathan Franzen", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Over the long term, symbiosis is more useful than parasitism. More fun, too. Ask any mitochondria.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Larry Wall" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/larry-wall/over-the-long-term-symbiosis-is-more-useful-than-parasitism-more-fun/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cf/larry-wall-1576_asks_over-the-long-term-symbiosis-is-more-use_2160804.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cf/larry-wall-1576_asks_over-the-long-term-symbiosis-is-more-use_2160804.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cf/larry-wall-1576_asks_over-the-long-term-symbiosis-is-more-use_2160804.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Over the long term, symbiosis is more useful than parasitism. More fun, too. Ask any mitochondria.” — Larry Wall", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Mitochondria are strange organelles in the sense that they have their own DNA and ribosomes.Therefore, mitochondria are able to make some of their own proteins”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Anonymous" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/mitochondria-are-strange-organelles-in-the-sense-that-they-have-their/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/anonymous-1_evolution_mitochondria-are-strange-organelles-in-t_2681400.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/anonymous-1_evolution_mitochondria-are-strange-organelles-in-t_2681400.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/anonymous-1_evolution_mitochondria-are-strange-organelles-in-t_2681400.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Mitochondria are strange organelles in the sense that they have their own DNA and ribosomes.Therefore…” — Anonymous", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Were it not for the melanin in our skin, myoglobin in our muscles and haemoglobin in our blood, we would be the colour of mitochondria. And, if this were so, we would change colour when we exercised or ran out of breath, so that you could tell how energized someone was from his or her colour.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Guy Brown" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/guy-brown/were-it-not-for-the-melanin-in-our-skin-myoglobin-in-our-muscles-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fcf/guy-brown-74641_biology_were-it-not-for-the-melanin-in-our-skin_858939.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fcf/guy-brown-74641_biology_were-it-not-for-the-melanin-in-our-skin_858939.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fcf/guy-brown-74641_biology_were-it-not-for-the-melanin-in-our-skin_858939.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Were it not for the melanin in our skin, myoglobin in our muscles and haemoglobin in our blood, we would be…” — Guy Brown", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In the normal process of producing energy, each mitochondrion produces hundreds if not thousands of free radical molecules each day. Multiply that by the ten million billion mitochondria that we each possess and you come up with an unfathomable number, ten”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "David Perlmutter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-perlmutter/in-the-normal-process-of-producing-energy-each-mitochondrion-produces/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d27/david-perlmutter-2461_energy_in-the-normal-process-of-producing-energ_2260075.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d27/david-perlmutter-2461_energy_in-the-normal-process-of-producing-energ_2260075.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d27/david-perlmutter-2461_energy_in-the-normal-process-of-producing-energ_2260075.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In the normal process of producing energy, each mitochondrion produces hundreds if not thousands of free…” — David Perlmutter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I try to think up material that might apply to the subjects they are studying. How many mitochondria does it take to power a cell? One. Because mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. Not ready for prime time, that one.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mike Birbiglia" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-birbiglia/i-try-to-think-up-material-that-might-apply-to-the-subjects-they-are/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c96/mike-birbiglia-1343_cells_i-try-to-think-up-material-that-might-ap_1206746.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c96/mike-birbiglia-1343_cells_i-try-to-think-up-material-that-might-ap_1206746.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c96/mike-birbiglia-1343_cells_i-try-to-think-up-material-that-might-ap_1206746.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I try to think up material that might apply to the subjects they are studying. How many mitochondria does it…” — Mike Birbiglia", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Mitochondria, as we have seen, are only passed on in the egg, so all 13 mitochondrial genes come from our mothers. If these genes really do influence lifespan, and we can only inherit them from our mothers, then our own lifespan should reflect that of our mothers but not our fathers.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nick Lane" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/mitochondria-as-we-have-seen-are-only-passed-on-in-the-egg-so-all-13/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec5/nick-lane-26984_evolution_mitochondria-as-we-have-seen-are-only-pa_2746549.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec5/nick-lane-26984_evolution_mitochondria-as-we-have-seen-are-only-pa_2746549.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec5/nick-lane-26984_evolution_mitochondria-as-we-have-seen-are-only-pa_2746549.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Mitochondria, as we have seen, are only passed on in the egg, so all 13 mitochondrial genes come from our…” — Nick Lane", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "We are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts. We are shared, rented, occupied. At the interior of our cells, driving them, providing the oxidative energy that sends us out for the improvement of each shining day, are the mitochondria, and in a strict sense they are not ours.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lewis Thomas" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/we-are-not-made-up-as-we-had-always-supposed-of-successively-enriched/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c4f/lewis-thomas-2299_cells_we-are-not-made-up-as-we-had-always-supp_1656715.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c4f/lewis-thomas-2299_cells_we-are-not-made-up-as-we-had-always-supp_1656715.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c4f/lewis-thomas-2299_cells_we-are-not-made-up-as-we-had-always-supp_1656715.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts. We are…” — Lewis Thomas", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "My mitochondria comprise a very large proportion of me. I cannot do the calculation, but I suppose there is almost as much of them in sheer dry bulk as there is the rest of me. Looked at in this way, I could be taken for a very large, motile colony of respiring bacteria, operating a complex system of nuclei, microtubules, and neurons for the pleasure and sustenance of their families, and running, at the moment, a typewriter.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lewis Thomas" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/my-mitochondria-comprise-a-very-large-proportion-of-me-i-cannot-do/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c1/lewis-thomas-2299_bacteria_my-mitochondria-comprise-a-very-large-pr_1656260.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c1/lewis-thomas-2299_bacteria_my-mitochondria-comprise-a-very-large-pr_1656260.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c1/lewis-thomas-2299_bacteria_my-mitochondria-comprise-a-very-large-pr_1656260.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“My mitochondria comprise a very large proportion of me. I cannot do the calculation, but I suppose there is…” — Lewis Thomas", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Metabolically active cells, such as those of the liver, kidneys, muscles, and brain, have hundreds or thousands of mitochondria, making up some 40 per cent of the cytoplasm. The egg cell, or oocyte, is exceptional: it passes on around 100000 mitochondria to the next generation. In contrast, blood cells and skin cells have very few, or none at all; sperm usually have fewer than 100. All in all, there are said to be 10 million billion mitochondria in an adult human, which together constitute about 10 per cent of our body weight.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nick Lane" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/metabolically-active-cells-such-as-those-of-the-liver-kidneys-muscles/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb0/nick-lane-26984_body-weight_metabolically-active-cells-such-as-those_2072369.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb0/nick-lane-26984_body-weight_metabolically-active-cells-such-as-those_2072369.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eb0/nick-lane-26984_body-weight_metabolically-active-cells-such-as-those_2072369.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Metabolically active cells, such as those of the liver, kidneys, muscles, and brain, have hundreds or…” — Nick Lane", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Rather surprisingly, to anyone who is most familiar with textbook mitochondria, many simple single-celled eukaryotes have mitochondria that operate in the absence of oxygen. Instead of using oxygen to burn up food, these ‘anaerobic’ mitochondria use other simple compounds like nitrate or nitrite. In most other respects, they operate in a very similar fashion to our own mitochondria, and are unquestionably related. So the spectrum stretches from aerobic mitochondria like our own, which are dependent on oxygen, through ‘anaerobic’ mitochondria, which prefer to use other molecules like nitrates, to the hydrogenosomes, which work rather differently but are still related.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nick Lane" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/rather-surprisingly-to-anyone-who-is-most-familiar-with-textbook/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d92/nick-lane-26984_quote_rather-surprisingly-to-anyone-who-is-mos_648148.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d92/nick-lane-26984_quote_rather-surprisingly-to-anyone-who-is-mos_648148.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d92/nick-lane-26984_quote_rather-surprisingly-to-anyone-who-is-mos_648148.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Rather surprisingly, to anyone who is most familiar with textbook mitochondria, many simple single-celled…” — Nick Lane", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“One mitochondrion contains tens of thousands of copies of each respiratory complex. A single cell contains hundreds or thousands of mitochondria. Your 40 trillion cells contain at least a quadrillion mitochondria, with a combined convoluted surface area of about 14,000 square metres; about four football fields. Their job is to pump protons, and together they pump more than 1021 of them – nearly as many as there are stars in the known universe – every second.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Nick Lane" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-lane/one-mitochondrion-contains-tens-of-thousands-of-copies-of-each/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/29c/nick-lane-26984_every-second_one-mitochondrion-contains-tens-of-thous_1540092.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/29c/nick-lane-26984_every-second_one-mitochondrion-contains-tens-of-thous_1540092.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/29c/nick-lane-26984_every-second_one-mitochondrion-contains-tens-of-thous_1540092.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“One mitochondrion contains tens of thousands of copies of each respiratory complex. A single cell contains…” — Nick Lane", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mitochondria/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mitochondria/", "name": "Mitochondria Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mitochondria/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97a/jonathan-franzen-801_cooks_cooks-were-the-mitochondria-of-humanity_2971679.jpg" }, "description": "Browse 12 Mitochondria quotes by 8 authors. 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