Elizabeth Blackwell

Life's profound lessons are etched in struggle.

Medical ethics demand unwavering integrity.

My last words: Continue the fight for equality.

It is not easy to be a pioneer—but oh, it is grand!

The idea of winning a medical education, in spite of all the obstacles which a woman must encounter, acted as a strong stimulus.

I must have a profession, and to me, medicine was the only one that seemed to offer a field for the exercise of all my faculties.

If society will not admit of women's sharing in the duties and responsibilities of life, it must not complain if they are found wanting in its virtues.

The study of medicine is arduous, but it is not beyond the strength of a woman.

The great object of education is to enable us to judge of the true and the false, the good and the evil, and to choose the good and the true.

To deny women the opportunity to develop their intellectual and moral powers is to impoverish society.

The world is not yet ready for a true recognition of the power of woman.

No great work is ever done without a great purpose.

The more difficulties one has to encounter, the more significant and interesting it is to overcome them.

The right of women to study medicine is not a question of privilege, but of justice.

Every individual has a right to the full development of his or her faculties.

The highest aim of medicine is not merely to cure disease, but to prevent it.

Sanitary science is the true basis of public health.

The true physician is a teacher as well as a healer.

The health of the community is the highest law.

Ignorance is the greatest enemy of health.