Florence Nightingale

The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.

Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard as any painter's or sculptor's work.

The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe.

Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift - there is nothing small about it.

I am of the opinion that the greater part of the mischief of the world would be done away with if we would only observe.

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.

A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.

The world is put back by every mistake and every act of obedience which is not a result of conviction.

The martyr sacrifices herself entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for she makes the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.

I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought to be distilled into actions which bring results.

The amount of relief and comfort experienced by the sick after a good fit of crying is immense.

No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this—'devoted and obedient.' This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.

To understand God's thoughts, we must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose.

It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.

The very first canon of nursing is to keep the air within as pure as the air without.

Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.

The greater the suffering, the greater the opportunity for growth.

If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault not of the disease, but of the nursing.