189 Quotes by Florence Nightingale

Hospitals are only an intermediate stage of civilization, never intended at all even to take in the whole sick population.

Better to have pain than paralysis.

A global flu pandemic would kill between seven million and 200 million, depending on which scientist or medical journal you read.

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.

I attribute my success to this—I never gave or took any excuse.

I cannot remember the time when I have not longed for death...For years and years, I used to watch for death as no sick man ever watched for the morning.

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

For us who Nurse, our Nursing is a thing, which, unless in it we are making progress every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back. The more experience we gain, the more progress we can make.

I attribute my success to this; I never gave nor took any excuse.