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Asceticism is the trifling of an enthusiast with his power, a puerile coquetting with his selfishness or his vanity, in the absence of any sufficiently great object to employ the first or overcome the last.

— Florence Nightingale

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More quotes by Florence Nightingale

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)

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Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Charles Caleb Colton Lacon (1820)

'Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul:
I think the Romans call it Stoicism.

Joseph Addison Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

Samuel Johnson The Rambler (1750)

There are people who are known to be very liberal, yet they never give without scolding or pride or even insolence.

John Calvin

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Florence Nightingale (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.