Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the Crimean War, where she organized the tending to wounded soldiers. She gave nursing a highly favorable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of “The Lady with the Lamp” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night. In 1860, Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King’s College London. May her quotes inspire you to be a person of success.
1. “Working hard is how to be successful.” Florence Nightingale
2. “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
3. “Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. But to live your life, you must discipline it.” Florence Nightingale
4. “Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.” Florence Nightingale
5. “I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.” Florence Nightingale
6. “The object and color in the materials around us actually have a physical effect on us, on how we feel.” Florence Nightingale
7. “Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses, we must be learning all of our lives.” Florence Nightingale
8. “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
9. “No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this – ‘devoted and obedient’.” Florence Nightingale
10. “How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.” Florence Nightingale
11. “The first possibility of rural cleanliness lies in water supply.” Florence Nightingale
12. “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
13. “Mankind must make heaven before we can “go to heaven” (as the phrase is), in this world as in any other.” Florence Nightingale
14. “I did not think of going to give myself a position, but for the sake of common humanity.” Florence Nightingale
15. “I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.” Florence Nightingale
