137 Inspirational Quotes for Nurses to Uplift and Motivate

"Nurses are there when the last breath is taken, and nurses are there when the first breath is taken. Although it is more enjoyable to celebrate the birth, it is just as important to comfort in death."

- Christine Bell

"To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can, in spite of all we go through, is to be a nurse."

- Rawsi Williams

"Nurses are the heart of healthcare."

- Donna Wilk Cardillo, MA, RN, CSP

"As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Being a nurse means to hold all your own tears and start drawing smiles on people's faces."

- Dana Basem

"The nurse is temporarily the consciousness of the unconscious, the love of life of the suicidal, the leg of the amputee, the eyes of the newly blind, a means of locomotion for the newborn, knowledge and confidence for the young mother, a voice for those too weak to speak, and so on."

- Virginia Henderson, RN

"Nurses are always there, you care for us from the earliest years. You look after us in our happiest and saddest times. And for many, you look after us and our families at the end of our lives. Your dedication and professionalism are awe-inspiring."

- Duchess Kate Middleton

"Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy… nurses are rarely short on caring."

- Sharon Hudacek

"A nurse is compassion in scrubs."

- Lexie Saige

"Nursing is not for everyone. It takes a very strong, intelligent, and compassionate person to take on the ills of the world with passion and purpose and work to maintain the health and well-being of the planet."

- Donna Wilk Cardillo

"Nursing is not just an art, it has a heart. Nursing is not just a science, but it has a conscience."

- Donna Wilk Cardillo

"Nurses are a unique kind. They have this insatiable need to care for others, which is both their greatest strength and fatal flaw."

- Jean Watson

"Caring is the essence of nursing."

- Jean Watson

"Every nurse was drawn to nursing because of a desire to care, to serve, or to help."

- Christina Feist-Heilmeier, RN

"You treat a disease: you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win—no matter the outcome."

- Robin Williams in Patch Adams

"When I think about all the patients and their loved ones I have worked with over the years, I know most of them don't remember me, nor I, them. But I do know that I gave a little piece of myself to each of them, and they to me, and those threads make up the tapestry that is my career in nursing."

- Donna Wilk Cardillo

"A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope."

- Carrie Latet

"Nurses—one of the few blessings of being ill."

- Sara Moss-Wolfe

"Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon."

- Dag Hammarskjold

"The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest."

- William Osler

"America's nurses are the beating heart of our medical system."

- Barack Obama

"Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the job, every day, while we are 'just doing our jobs."

- Christine Belle

"A caress, a smile, is full of meaning for one who is sick. It is a simple gesture, but encouraging, he or she feels accompanied, feels closer to being healed, feels like a person, not a number."

- Pope Francis

"It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly."

- Stephen Ambrose

"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

"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

"Most of all, you need moral courage because nursing is about the pursuit of justice. It requires you to stand up to bullies, to do things that are right but difficult, and to speak your mind even when you are afraid. I wasn't strong like this when I started out. Nursing made me strong."

- Tilda Shalof

"Nursing is the finest art: It requires not only scientific knowledge and skills but also qualities such as patience, compassion, and dedication."

- Linda Richards

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier."

- Mother Teresa

"Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse."

- Elizabeth Kenny

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

- Florence Nightingale

"The character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses."

- Carolyn Jarvis

"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts."

- Charles Dickens

"It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing."

- Mother Teresa

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

- 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 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

"Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital."

- Carrie Latet

"I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them."

- Clara Barton

"Although your educational journey may be difficult at times, you will reap the reward of utmost satisfaction when holding your nursing diploma for the first time—and nothing will ever compare to the fulfillment that improving and saving the lives of others will bring!"

- Mikhail Shneyder

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

- Florence Nightingale

"The longer I'm in the profession, the more experiences shape my life, the more amazing colleagues influence me, the more I see the micro and macro power of nursing."

- Joni Watson

"Kindness can transform someone's dark moment with a blaze of light. You'll never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today."

- Amy Leigh Mercree

"Nurses are like icebergs. At any one time, you are only seeing what they are actually doing."

- Ian Miller

"Nurses encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken."

- Myrtle Aydelotte

"Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch."

- Judy Blume

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

- Leo Buscaglia

"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

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."

- Muhammad Ali

"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

"I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestation of strength and resolution."

- Kahlil Gibran

"The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head."

- William Osler

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle."

- Plato

"Work for a cause, not for applause. Live life to express, not to impress. Don't strive to make your presence noticed, just make your presence felt."

- Grace Lichtenstein

"Fill your mind with truth. Fill your heart with love. Fill your life with service."

- Vaughn J. Featherstone

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

- Florence Nightingale

"One person caring about another represents life's greatest value."

- Jim Rohn

"The world gives you so much pain and here you are, making gold out of it – there is nothing purer than that."

- Rupi Kaur

"I didn't want just any career, so I am not going to be just any nurse."

- Denise Richards

"If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For passion will lead you right into your purpose."

- Bishop T.D. Jakes

"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."

- Pablo Picasso

"Happiness…consists of giving, and in serving others."

- Henry Drummond

"Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on Earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling."

- Vincent van Gogh

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

- Florence Nightingale

"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Never underestimate the healing effects of beauty."

- Florence Nightingale

"Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom."

- Earl Shoaf

"Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen every day."

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation."

- Aristotle

"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

"Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."

- Mother Teresa

"Finding a good nurse is not just about checking off a list of skills the nurse can perform; it's also about finding someone who is a good fit for your home."

- Charisse Montgomery

"God appoints our graces to be NURSES to other men's weaknesses."

- Henry Ward Beecher

"Confidence is not 'they will like me,' confidence is 'I'll be fine if they don't.' Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don't let these feelings stop them."

- T. Harv Eker

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

- Florence Nightingale

"I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

- E.E. Hale

"It's okay to learn from every experience, and it's okay to make mistakes."

- Louise Hay

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

- Francis of Assisi

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."

- Benjamin Spock

"We are each made for goodness, love, and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths."

- Desmond Tutu

"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 us fill our hearts with our own compassion – towards ourselves and towards all living beings."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"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

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."

- Earl Nightingale

"Hardships often prepare people for an extraordinary destiny."

- C.S. Lewis

"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow."

- Anthony J. D'Angelo

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this something, at whatever cost, must be attained."

- Marie Curie

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose."

- Dr. Seuss

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

"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

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."

- Vince Lombardi

"Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny."

- Mahatma Ghandi

"If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything."

- Win Borden

"The wound is the place where the light enters you."

- Rumi

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."

- Henry David Thoreau

"If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone."

- John Maxwell

"I never dreamed about success—I worked for it."

- Estée Lauder

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"Success comes to those who are too busy to look for it."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

- Salvador Dali

"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

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It's the best part of the day."

- George Allen, Sr.

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

- Derek Bok

"I am among those who think that science has great beauty."

- Marie Curie

"Mankind must make heaven before we can 'go to heaven' (as the phrase is), in this world as in any other."

- Florence Nightingale

"Instead of wishing to see more doctors made by women joining what there are, I wish to see as few doctors, either male or female, as possible. For, mark you, the women have made no improvement they have only tried to be 'men' and they have only succeeded in being third-rate men."

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription."

"When someone is going through a storm, your silent presence is more powerful than a million empty words."

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."