Inspiring Student Nurse Quotes to Fuel Your Passion

"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

"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

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

- Florence Nightingale

"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

"A nurse dispenses comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription."

- Val Saintsbury

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

- Carolyn Jarvis

"Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness."

- Harold Kushner

"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

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

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nurses encompass 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

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

- Virginia Henderson

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Mother Teresa

"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

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

- Muhammad Ali

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

- Jim Rohn

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- William Osler

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"Caring is the essence of nursing."

- Jean Watson

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

- Judy Blume

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

- Florence Nightingale

"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

"A nurse is compassion in scrubs."

- Lexie Saige

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

- Winston Churchill

"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

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Mother Teresa

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

- Christina Feist-Heilmeier, RN

"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

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

- Robin Williams, Patch Adams

"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

"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

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

- Nelson Mandela

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

"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

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

- Florence Nightingale

"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

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

- St. Francis of Assisi

"Nurses are the heart of healthcare."

- Donna Wilk Cardillo, MA, RN, CSP

"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

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

- Carolyn Jarvis

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

- Leo Buscaglia

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

- Kahlil Gibran

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

- Henry Ward Beecher

"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

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

- Benjamin Spock

"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

"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

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

- Dana Basem

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

- Dag Hammarskjold

"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

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

- Barack Obama

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

- Mother Teresa

"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

"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

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

- Charles Dickens

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

- Rawsi Williams

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

- Dr. Seuss

"It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate."

- Quintilian

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

- Earl Nightingale

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

- Ian Miller

"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 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

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

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

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

- Florence Nightingale

"I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy; I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it."

- Art Williams

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

- Anthony J. D'Angelo

"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

"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

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Just so you know, doctors are here to diagnose, not heal. We heal."

- Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie

"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

"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

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

- Stephen Ambrose

"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

"What angels are to the sad, nurses are to the sick."

- Amit Kalantri

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

- Sharon Hudacek

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

- Christine Belle

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

- Estée Lauder

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

- Art Williams

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

- Plato

"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

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

- Henry Drummond

"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

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

- Henry David Thoreau

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

- Maya Angelou

"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

"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

"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

"Never underestimate the healing effects of beauty."

- Florence Nightingale

"Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital."

- Carrie Latet

"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

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Elizabeth Kenny

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."

- Chinese Proverb

"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

"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

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

- John Maxwell

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

- Aristotle

"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

"What you do makes a difference. And you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

- Jane Goodall

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

- Salvador Dali

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Marie Curie

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves."

- Marie Curie

"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"There no longer has to be a difference between who you are and what you do."

- Gary Vaynerchuk

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Rumi

"Drugs are not always necessary, belief in recovery always is."

- Norman Cousins

"Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths."

- Rumi

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

- Florence Nightingale

"We have been dying since we got here and forgot to enjoy the view – live fully."

- Rupi Kaur

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

- Rupi Kaur

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

- Louise Hay

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

- Henry David Thoreau

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

- Henry Drummond

"Always thank your nurse! Sometimes they’re the only one between you and a hearse."

- Warren Beatty

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

- Win Borden

"Hardships often prepare people for an extraordinary destiny."

- C.S. Lewis

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

- Carrie Latet

"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

"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

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

- Plato

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

- Pablo Picasso

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

- Confucius

"Forgive yourself, you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey."

- Shannon Yvette Tanner

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

- Florence Nightingale

"Nursing would be a dream job if there were no doctors."

- Gerhard Kocher

"A nurse is not what you do. It is what you are…I am a nurse. It’s not what I do, it’s what I am."

- Unknown

"A nurse is one who opens the eyes of a newborn and gently closes the eyes of a dying man. It is indeed a high blessing to be the first and last to witness the beginning and end of life."

- Unknown

"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."

"No matter how difficult the days may get, don’t forget the reason you became a nurse."

"When you feel like quitting, remember why you started."

"Every nurse has that one patient that they’ll remember forever."

"It’s a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together."

"Nurses are angels in comfortable shoes."

- Unknown

"Always remember your WHY"

"When you’re a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours."

- Unknown

"A nurse is not what you do. It is what you are…. I am a nurse. It’s not what I do, it’s what I am."

- Unknown

"Nursing is not for the empty of heart…nor the faint of heart."

"Nursing school is a lot like giving birth… Once it’s over, you tend to forget just how painful the process really was."

"The definition of a nurse: To go above and beyond the call of duty. The first to work and the last to leave. The heart and soul of caring. who will pass through your life for a minute and impact it for an eternity. An empowered individual whom you may meet for only a 12-hour period, but who will put you and yours above theirs."

"Life doesn’t begin at graduation. It began when you made the decision to start nursing school."

- Anonymous

"Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing!"

"Forgive yourself; you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey."

- Unknown

"While that’s correct… it’s not the most correct. This is nursing school."

"Value what you do and add value by what you do."

- Unknown

"Be the nurse you would want as a patient."

"Save one life, you’re a hero. Save 100 lives, you’re a nurse."

- Unknown

"Treat the patient as a whole, not just the hole in the patient."

- Unknown

"Sometimes I inspire my patients; more often, they inspire me."

- Unknown