35 Famous Nursing Quotes By Florence Nightingale (With Pictures)

35 Famous Nursing Quotes By Florence Nightingale (With Pictures)

Florence Nightingale is considered a saint by many for raising the standards of nursing, educating caregivers, and changing the perspective of how nurses were viewed in the healthcare profession.

As the most famous nurse in history, Nightingale is remembered most for her work during the Crimean War (1853-56), where she described hospital conditions as being “horrid.”  During her time as a wartime nurse, she educated new nurses on higher standards of nursing care and eventually organized a nurse training school in London.

Nightingale helped pioneer the nursing profession as we know it today.  One way to help us understand how and why she made many of the decisions that she made as a nurse is by reading through one of her many famous nursing quotes.

Read on to hear about the thoughts and feelings that Nightingale had regarding healthcare and the nursing profession from 165 years ago.

Photo of nurse Florence Nightingale

35 Famous Nursing Quotes By Florence Nightingale

The 35 Most Famous Nursing Quotes By Florence Nightingale:

1.  “If you knew how unreasonably sick people suffer from reasonable causes of distress, you would take more pains about all these things.”

Famous nurse quotes - Florence Nightingale


2.  “Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, not 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 by servants about them.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


3.  “There is no part of my life, upon which I can look back without pain.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


4.  “The craving for ‘the return of the day”, which the sick so constantly evince, is generally nothing but the desire for light.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


5.  The amount of relief and comfort experienced by the sick after the skin has been carefully washed and dried is one the the commonest observations made at a sickbed.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


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

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


7.  Women should have the true nurse calling, the good of the sick first, the second only the considerations fo what is their “place” to do – and that women who want for a housemaid to do this or the charwomen to do that, when patient is suffering, have not the making of a nurse in them…”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


8.  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.”

Famous Nurse Quotes Florence Nightingale


9.  Everything is sketchy, the world does nothing by sketch.”

Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


10.  Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.  Remember hs is face to face with his enemy all the time.

Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


11.  “That Religion is not devotion, but work and suffering for the love of God; this is the true doctrine of Mystics.”

Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


12.  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.”

Famous Nurse Quotes Florence Nightingale


13.  “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.”

Famous Nurse Quotes Florence Nightingale


14.  “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.”

Famous nurse quotes - Florence Nightingale


15.  “She said the object and color in the materials around us actually have a physical effect on us, on how we feel.”Famous Nurse Quotes Florence Nightingale


16.  “The world is put back by the death of everyone who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.”

Famous Nurse Quotes Florence Nightingale


17.  Everything you do in a patient’s room, after is is ‘put up’ for the night, increases tenfold the risk of his having a bad night.  But, if you rouse him up after he has fallen asleep, you do not risk – you secure him a bad night.”

Famous quotes by Florence Nightingale


18. Live your life while you have it.  Life is a splendid gift.  There is nothi8ng small in it.  Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest.  But to live your life, you must discipline it.”

Famous quotes by Florence Nightingale


19.  “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 as of importance – which are of none – which are the evidence of neglect – and of what kind of neglect.”

Famous quotes by Florence Nightingale


20.  It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that is should do the sick no harm.”

Famous nurse quotes - Florence Nightingale


21.  A hundred struggle and drown in the breakers.  One discovers the new would.  But rather, ten times rather, die in the surf, heralding the way to that new world, than stand idly on the shore…

Famous nurse quotes - Florence Nightingale


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

Famous Nurse Quotes- Florence Nightingale


23.  “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.”

Famous Nurse Quotes- Florence Nightingale


24.  “Badly constructed houses do for the healthy what badly constructed hospitals do for the sich.  Once insure that the air in a house is stagnant, and sickness is certain to follow.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


25.  “If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of a 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.”

Famous Nurse Quotes- Florence Nightingale


26.  “Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


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

famous nurse quotes - Florence Nightingale


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

famous nurse quotes - Florence Nightingale


29.  Sick children, if not too shy to speak, will always express this wish.  They invariably prefer a story to be told them, rather than read to them.”

Famous nurse quotes- Florence Nightingale


30.  “A dark house is always an unhealthy house,  always all ill-aired house,  Always a dirty house.  Want of light stops growth and promotes scrofula, rickets, ect,. amoung the children.  People lose their health in a dark house, and if they get ill, they cannot get well again in it.

Famous nursing quotes- Florence Nightingale


31.  And what nursing has to do in either case, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.”

Famous Nurse Quotes- Florence Nightingale


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

Famous nurse quotes- Florence Nightingale


33.  “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.”

Famous Nurse Quotes - Florence Nightingale


34.  I attribute my success to this:  I never gave or took any excuse.”


Famous Nurse quotes- Florence Nightingale


35.  “How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.”

Famous Nurse Quotes


Florence Nightingale Frequently Asked Questions:

What is Florence Nightingale famous for?

Florence Nightingale is famous for her contributions to the field of nursing, particularly during the Crimean War. She is widely regarded as the founder of modern nursing and is known for her innovations in sanitation and healthcare practices.

Why is Florence Nightingale so special?

Florence Nightingale is considered special because of her pioneering work in the field of nursing, which helped to establish nursing as a respected profession. She is also known for her tireless efforts to improve healthcare practices and conditions, particularly during the Crimean War.

What are three interesting facts about Florence Nightingale?

Florence Nightingale was born into a wealthy family and was expected to marry and become a society wife, but she chose to pursue a career in nursing instead.

She was known for her prolific writing and produced over 200 books, pamphlets, and reports on topics related to nursing, healthcare, and public health.

Florence Nightingale was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit, which is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a British citizen.

Why is Florence Nightingale called Lady with Lamp?

Florence Nightingale is called the Lady with the Lamp because of her habit of carrying a lamp as she made her rounds at night to check on the wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. This earned her a reputation as a compassionate caregiver and became a symbol of her commitment to the nursing profession.

What does Nightingale’s lamp symbolize?

The Nightingale lamp is a symbol of nursing and is associated with Florence Nightingale. It represents the caring and compassionate nature of the nursing profession and serves as a reminder of the critical role that nurses play in healthcare.

What is the symbol for a nurse?

The symbol for a nurse is often the Caduceus, which is a winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It is a traditional symbol of medicine and is often used to represent healthcare professionals, including nurses.

What does the two snakes mean on the medical symbol?

The two snakes on the medical symbol represent the Greek god Asclepius, who was the god of medicine and healing. They are often depicted intertwined around a staff or rod, which is also associated with Asclepius.

Additional recommended reading: