"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
Compassion
"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
Courage
"Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses … we must be learning all of our lives."
- Florence Nightingale
Learning
"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
Compassion
"A nurse dispenses comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription."
- Val Saintsbury
Compassion
"The character of a nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses."
- Carolyn Jarvis
Integrity
"Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness."
- Harold Kushner
Happiness
"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
Creativity
"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success
"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
Compassion
"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
Education
"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
Compassion
"Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backward."
- Florence Nightingale
Growth
"For the sick it is important to have the best."
- Florence Nightingale
Health
"Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."
- Mother Teresa
Compassion
"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
Health
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."
- Muhammad Ali
Service
"One person caring about another represents life’s greatest value."
- Jim Rohn
Compassion
"I attribute my success to this; I never gave nor took any excuse."
- Florence Nightingale
Determination
"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success
"The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest."
- William Osler
Contribution
"Nothing will work unless you do."
- Maya Angelou
Hard Work
"Caring is the essence of nursing."
- Jean Watson
Compassion
"Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we touch."
- Judy Blume
Reflection
"Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.’"
- Florence Nightingale
Achievement
"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
Compassion
"A nurse is compassion in scrubs."
- Lexie Saige
Compassion
"Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill
Courage
"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
Compassion
"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
Compassion
"It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing."
- Mother Teresa
Compassion
"Every nurse was drawn to nursing because of a desire to care, to serve, or to help."
- Christina Feist-Heilmeier, RN
Compassion
"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
Empowerment
"You treat a disease: you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win...no matter the outcome."
- Robin Williams, Patch Adams
Empathy
"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
Perseverance
"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
Gratitude
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela
Education
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Compassion
"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
Compassion
"Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives."
- Florence Nightingale
Learning
"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
Compassion
"Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
- St. Francis of Assisi
Motivation
"Nurses are the heart of healthcare."
- Donna Wilk Cardillo, MA, RN, CSP
Compassion
"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
Compassion
"The character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses."
- Carolyn Jarvis
Integrity
"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
Compassion
"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestation of strength and resolution."
- Kahlil Gibran
Strength
"God appoints our graces to be NURSES to other men’s weaknesses."
- Henry Ward Beecher
Service
"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
Compassion
"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."
- Benjamin Spock
Belief in Self
"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
Compassion
"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
Positivity
"Being a nurse means to hold all your own tears and start drawing smiles on people’s faces."
- Dana Basem
Compassion
"Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon."
- Dag Hammarskjold
Health
"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
Compassion
"America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system."
- Barack Obama
Empowerment
"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier."
- Mother Teresa
Compassion
"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
Determination
"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
Ambition
"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts."
- Charles Dickens
Compassion
"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
Ambition
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose."
- Dr. Seuss
Self-awareness
"It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate."
- Quintilian
Education
"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."
- Earl Nightingale
Aspirations
"Nurses are like icebergs. At any one time, you are only seeing what they are actually doing."
- Ian Miller
Awareness
"The world gives you so much pain, and here you are, making gold out of it – there is nothing purer than that."
- Rupi Kaur
Resilience
"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
Courage
"Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen every day."
- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Hope
"The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm."
- Florence Nightingale
Health
"I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy; I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it."
- Art Williams
Motivation
"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow."
- Anthony J. D’Angelo
Learning
"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
Personal Growth
"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
Personal Growth
"I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results."
- Florence Nightingale
Reflection
"Just so you know, doctors are here to diagnose, not heal. We heal."
- Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie
Courage
"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
Reflection
"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
Motivation
"It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly."
- Stephen Ambrose
Gratitude
"Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backwards."
- Florence Nightingale
Growth
"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
Creativity
"What angels are to the sad, nurses are to the sick."
- Amit Kalantri
Compassion
"Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy… nurses are rarely short on caring."
- Sharon Hudacek
Compassion
"Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the job, every day, while we are ‘just doing our jobs."
- Christine Belle
Motivation
"I never dreamed about success—I worked for it."
- Estée Lauder
Success
"I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it."
- Art Williams
Motivation
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle."
- Plato
Compassion
"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
Determination
"Happiness … consists of giving, and in serving others."
- Henry Drummond
Happiness
"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
Motivation
"Fill your mind with truth. Fill your heart with love. Fill your life with service."
- Vaughn J. Featherstone
Service
"Success comes to those who are too busy to look for it."
- Henry David Thoreau
Success
"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."
- Maya Angelou
Courage
"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
New Beginnings
"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
Motivation
"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
Belief in Self
"Never underestimate the healing effects of beauty."
- Florence Nightingale
Healing
"Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital."
- Carrie Latet
Compassion
"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
Determination
"Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts."
- Florence Nightingale
Creativity
"Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse."
- Elizabeth Kenny
Courage
"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."
- Chinese proverb
Education
"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
Education
"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
Aspirations
"If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone."
- John Maxwell
Growth
"Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation."
- Aristotle
Aspirations
"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
Healing
"What you do makes a difference. And you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."
- Jane Goodall
Motivation
"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."
- Salvador Dali
Ambition
"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated."
- Maya Angelou
Resilience
"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
Courage
"I am among those who think that science has great beauty."
- Marie Curie
Knowledge
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves."
- Marie Curie
Perseverance
"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Positivity
"There no longer has to be a difference between who you are and what you do."
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Integrity
"How very little can be done under the spirit of fear."
- Florence Nightingale
Courage
"The wound is the place where the light enters you."
- Rumi
Healing
"Drugs are not always necessary, belief in recovery always is."
- Norman Cousins
Belief
"Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths."
- Rumi
Personal Growth
"Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion."
- Florence Nightingale
Adversity
"We have been dying since we got here and forgot to enjoy the view – live fully."
- Rupi Kaur
Contentment
"The world gives you so much pain and here you are, making gold out of it – there is nothing purer than that."
- Rupi Kaur
Inspiration
"It’s okay to learn from every experience, and it’s okay to make mistakes."
- Louise Hay
Learning from Mistakes
"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."
- Henry David Thoreau
Love
"Happiness…consists of giving, and in serving others."
- Henry Drummond
Happiness
"Always thank your nurse! Sometimes they’re the only one between you and a hearse."
- Warren Beatty
Gratitude
"If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right, you’ll probably never do much of anything."
- Win Borden
Courage
"Hardships often prepare people for an extraordinary destiny."
- C.S. Lewis
Adversity
"A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope."
- Carrie Latet
Compassion
"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
Courage
"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
Inspiration
"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle."
- Plato
Compassion
"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."
- Pablo Picasso
Inspiration
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
- Confucius
Love
"Forgive yourself, you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey."
- Shannon Yvette Tanner
Self-care
"Everything is sketchy. The world does nothing but sketch."
- Florence Nightingale
Awareness
"Life doesn’t begin at graduation. It began when you made the decision to start nursing school."
- Anonymous
New Beginnings
"Nursing would be a dream job if there were no doctors."
- Gerhard Kocher
Ambition
"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
Belief in Self
"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
Compassion
"Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription."
Compassion
"When someone is going through a storm, your silent presence is more powerful than a million empty words."
Empathy
"No matter how difficult the days may get, don’t forget the reason you became a nurse."
Motivation
"When you feel like quitting, remember why you started."
Motivation
"Every nurse has that one patient that they’ll remember forever."
Reflection
"It’s a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together."
Aspirations
"Nurses are angels in comfortable shoes."
- Unknown
Compassion
"Always remember your WHY"
Motivation
"When you’re a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours."
- Unknown
Connection to Earth
"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
Belief in Self
"Nursing is not for the empty of heart…nor the faint of heart."
Courage
"Nursing school is a lot like giving birth… Once it’s over, you tend to forget just how painful the process really was."
Education
"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."
Compassion
"Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing!"
Compassion
"Forgive yourself; you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey."
- Unknown
Self-care
"While that’s correct… it’s not the most correct. This is nursing school."
Education
"Value what you do and add value by what you do."
- Unknown
Self-improvement
"Be the nurse you would want as a patient."
Compassion
"Save one life, you’re a hero. Save 100 lives, you’re a nurse."
- Unknown
Compassion
"Treat the patient as a whole, not just the hole in the patient."
- Unknown
Compassion
"Sometimes I inspire my patients; more often, they inspire me."
- Unknown
Inspiration