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Florence Nightingale Quotes

1820–1910 England

Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a British nurse, a pioneer of modern nursing, and a noted statistician.

England
Academics
Activists
Theologians

Also known as: Nightingale, Florence

Random Florence Nightingale quote

64 quotes

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

It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm.

Notes on Hospitals 3rd Edition (1863)

Law is the continuous manifestation of God's presence — not reason for believing him absent.

Suggestions for Thought : Selections and Commentaries (1994)

Can the "word" be pinned down to either one period or one church? All churches are, of course, only more or less unsuccessful attempts to represent the unseen to the mind.

It is very well to say "be prudent, be careful, try to know each other." But how are you to know each other?

Cassandra (1860)

Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity — these three — and a place in society where no one of the three can be exercised?

Cassandra (1860)

The offering is not to buy anything by suffering, but — If only the suppliant can do anything for God's children!

Notes from Devotional Authors of the Middle Ages (1873)

I use the word nursing for want of a better.

Notes on Nursing (1860)

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.

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

Sick-Nursing and Health-Nursing (1893)

"Prayer," says a mystic of the 16th century, "is to ask not what we wish of God, but what God wishes of us."

Notes from Devotional Authors of the Middle Ages (1873)

The Church is now more like the Scribes and Pharisees than like Christ... What are now called the "essential doctrines" of the Christian religion he does not even mention.

The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913)

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.

What is Mysticism? Is it not the attempt to draw near to God, not by rites or ceremonies, but by inward disposition?

Notes from Devotional Authors of the Middle Ages (1873)

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

The Book of Positive Quotations (2007)

The progressive world is necessarily divided into two classes — those who take the best of what there is and enjoy it — those who wish for something better and try to create it.

Cassandra (1860)

You must go to Mahometanism, to Buddhism, to the East, to the Sufis & Fakirs, to Pantheism, for the right growth of mysticism.

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

Cassandra (1860)

God has taken away the greatest man of his generation, for Dr. Livingstone stood alone.

Modern Heroes of the Mission Field (1882)

Our business is, I think, to understand, not to judge.

Florence Nightingale's Theology: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale (2002)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Florence Nightingale (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.