Words of Florence Nightingale
"I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse."
"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."
"How very little can be done under the spirit of fear."
"I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into
actions which bring results."
"Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach
anything better."
"The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm."
"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."
"Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses... we must be learning all of our lives."
"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."
"To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose."
"Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly
on the shore."
"I 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."
"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."
"If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very
ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His
service what He has done in her."
"Women have no sympathy... I have never found one woman who has altered her life by one
iota for me or my opinions."
Note: Nightingale was a complex figure who could be difficult and demanding. She
struggled with depression and chronic illness. She sometimes expressed frustration
with other women for not sharing her radical commitment to work. She was not a saint
but a human being who accomplished extraordinary things.