Quotes from Florence Nightingale

God spoke to me and called me to His Service. What form this service was to take the voice did not say.

I have learned to know God. I have recast my social belief... All my admirers are married; most of my friends are dead; and I stand with all the world before me, where to choose a path to make in it.

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

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

I can stand out the war with any man.

Never give nor take an excuse.

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

I stand at the altar of murdered men, and, while I live, I fight their cause.

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

Mysticism: to dwell on the unseen, to withdraw ourselves from the things of sense into communion with God - to endeavour to partake of the Divine nature; that is, of Holiness.

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

In a sick-room or a bed-room there should never be shutters shut.

Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault not of the disease, but of the nursing.

A human being does not cease to exist at death. It is change, not destruction, which takes place.

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

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

For the sick it is important to have the best.

To understand God's thoughts, one must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose.

The first possibility of rural cleanliness lies in water supply.

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.

By mortifying vanity we do ourselves no good. It is the want of interest in our life which produces it; by filling up that want of interest in our life we can alone remedy it.

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.

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