Florence Nightingale

"Everything is sketchy. The world does nothing but sketch."

- Florence Nightingale

"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."

- Florence Nightingale

"I did not think of going to give myself a position, but for the sake of common humanity."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"The world is put back by the death of everyone who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality."

- Florence Nightingale

"Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God's law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"If a nurse declines to do these kinds of things for her patient, “because it is not her business,” I should say that nursing was not her calling."

- Florence Nightingale

"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."

- Florence Nightingale

"Ignite the mind’s spark to rise the sun in you."

- Florence Nightingale

"“I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.”"

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts."

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives."

- Florence Nightingale

"Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses… we must be learning all of our lives."

- Florence Nightingale

"Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses … we must be learning all of our lives."

- Florence Nightingale

"Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses....we must be learning all of our lives."

- Florence Nightingale

"“Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives.”"

- Florence Nightingale

"Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses….we must be learning all of our lives."

- Florence Nightingale

"May we hope that, when we are all dead and gone, leaders will arise who have been personally experienced in the hard, practical work, the difficulties, and the joys of organizing nursing reforms and who will lead far beyond anything we have done!"

- Florence Nightingale

"Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head: not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but: how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?"

- Florence Nightingale

"To be ‘in charge’ is certainly not only to carry out the proper measures yourself, but to see that everyone else does so too."

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backward."

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backwards."

- Florence Nightingale

"Unless we are making progress in our nursing every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back."

- Florence Nightingale

"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."

- Florence Nightingale

"Never underestimate the healing effects of beauty."

- Florence Nightingale

"And what nursing has to do in either case is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him."

- Florence Nightingale

"“Never underestimate the healing effects of beauty.”"

- Florence Nightingale

"“And what nursing has to do in either case is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.”"

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"For the sick it is important to have the best."

- Florence Nightingale

"Nature alone cures. ... what nursing has to do ... is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him."

- Florence Nightingale

"For the sick, it is important to have the best."

- Florence Nightingale

"Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day. If her face, too, so much the better."

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.”"

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"I attribute my success to this; I never gave nor took any excuse."

- Florence Nightingale

"I attribute my success to this:—I never gave or took an excuse."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"“I attribute my success to this; I never gave nor took any excuse.”"

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is an art, and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation as any painter’s or sculptor’s work."

- Florence Nightingale

""I attribute my success to this; I never gave nor took any excuse.""

- Florence Nightingale

"The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe-how to observe-what symptoms indicate improvement-what the reverse-which are of importance-which are of none-which are the evidence of neglect-and of what kind of neglect."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"The best nurses have the essential qualifications before they go to school."

- Florence Nightingale

"So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"“So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.”"

- Florence Nightingale

"“Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.”"

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.’"

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale