Florence Nightingale was born on the 12th of May, 1820 in Florence, Italy. She was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Florence Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge.
Florence Nightingale was a trailblazing figure in nursing who greatly affected 19th- and 20th-century policies around proper medical care. She was known for her night rounds to aid the wounded, establishing her image as the ‘Lady with the Lamp.’ She died August 13, 1910 in Mayfair, London, United Kingdom.
In this article, we have compiled a collection of popular Florence Nightingale quotes and sayings.
60 Florence Nightingale Quotes About Life, Health & Nursing
The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backwards.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
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 Quote
Life is a hard fight, a struggle, a wrestling with the principle of evil, hand to hand, foot to foot. Every inch of the way is disputed. The night is given us to take breath, to pray, to drink deep at the fountain of power. The day, to use the strength which has been given us, to go forth to work with it till the evening.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
We know nothing of the principle of health, the positive of which pathology is the negative, except from observation and experience. And nothing but observation and experience will teach us the ways to maintain or to bring back the state of health. It is often thought that medicine is the curative process. It is no such thing; … nature alone cures. … And what [true] nursing has to do … is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Jesus Christ raised women above the condition of mere slaves, mere ministers to the passions of the man, raised them by His sympathy, to be Ministers of God.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Why do people sit up so late, or, more rarely, get up so early? Not because the day is not long enough, but because they have no time in the day to themselves.― Florence Nightingale Quote
The symptoms or the sufferings generally considered to be inevitable and incident to the disease are very often not symptoms of the disease at all, but of something quite different-of the want of fresh air, or of light, or of warmth, or of quiet, or of cleanliness, or of punctuality and care in the administration of diet, of each or of all of these.― Florence Nightingale Quote
That Religion is not devotion, but work and suffering for the love of God; this is the true doctrine of Mystics.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Do not meet or overtake a patient who is moving about in order to speak to him or to give him any message or letter. You might just as well give him a box on the ear. I have seen a patient fall flat on the ground who was standing when his nurse came into the room.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Sick children, if not too shy to speak, will always express this wish. They invariably prefer a story to be told to them, rather than read to them.― Florence Nightingale Quote
I have lived and slept in the same bed with English countesses and Prussian farm women… no woman has excited passions among women more than I have.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Hospitals are only an intermediate stage of civilization, never intended … to take in the whole sick population. May we hope that the day will come … when every poor sick person will have the opportunity of a share in a district sick-nurse at home.― Florence Nightingale Quote
A woman cannot live in the light of intellect. Society forbids it. Those conventional frivolities, which are called her ‘duties’, forbid it. Her ‘domestic duties’, high-sounding words, which, for the most part, are but bad habits (which she has not the courage to enfranchise herself from, the strength to break through), forbid it.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Women have no sympathy and my experience of women is almost as large as Europe.― Florence Nightingale Quote
People say the effect is only on the mind. It is no such thing. The effect is on the body, too. Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color, and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect. Variety of form and brilliancy of color in the objects presented to patients, are actual means of recovery.― Florence Nightingale Quote
A human being does not cease to exist at death. It is change, not destruction, which takes place.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Statistics is the most important science in the whole world: for upon it depends the practical application of every other science and of every art: the one science essential to all political and social administration, all education, all organization based on experience, for it only gives results of our experience.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Our first journey is to find that special place for us.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
The most important practical lesson than can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
For the sick it is important to have the best.― Florence Nightingale Quote
It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm. It is quite necessary nevertheless to lay down such a principle …― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.― Florence Nightingale Quote
You ask me why I do not write something…. I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift-there is nothing small about it.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
To understand God’s thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose.― Florence Nightingale Quote
What cruel mistakes are sometimes made by benevolent men and women in matters of business about which they can know nothing and think they know a great deal.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Unless we are making progress in our nursing every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Volumes are now written and spoken upon the effect of the mind upon the body. Much of it is true. But I wish a little more was thought of the effect of the body on the mind.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses….we must be learning all of our lives.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Never give nor take an excuse.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Badly constructed houses do for the healthy what badly constructed hospitals do for the sick. Once insure that the air in a house is stagnant, and sickness is certain to follow.― Florence Nightingale Quote
How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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.― Florence Nightingale Quote
She said the object and color in the materials around us actually have a physical effect on us, on how we feel.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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.― Florence Nightingale Quote
God spoke to me and called me to His Service. What form this service was to take the voice did not say.― Florence Nightingale Quote
The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.― Florence Nightingale Quote
A dark house is always an unhealthy house, always an ill-aired house, always a dirty house. Want of light stops growth and promotes scrofula, rickets, etc., among the children. People lose their health in a dark house, and if they get ill, they cannot get well again in it.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection.― Florence Nightingale Quote
The very elements of what constitutes good nursing are as little understood for the well as for the sick. The same laws of health or of nursing, for they are in reality the same, obtain among the well as among the sick.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Unnecessary noise is the most cruel abuse of care which can be inflicted on either the sick or the well.― Florence Nightingale Quote
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 Quote
Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Remember my name– you’ll be screaming it later.― Florence Nightingale Quote
I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet-all at the least expense of vital power to the patient.― Florence Nightingale Quote
Woman has nothing but her affections,–and this makes her at once more loving and less loved.― Florence Nightingale Quote