Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC (May 12, 1820 - August 13, 1910) was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. She 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 favourable 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. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. Remember he is face to face with his enemy all the time.
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.
For the sick it is important to have the best.
For what is Mysticism? Is it not the attempt to draw near to God, not by rites or ceremonies, but by inward disposition? Is it not merely a hard word for 'The Kingdom of Heaven is within'? Heaven is neither a place nor a time.
I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.
I attribute my success to this- I never gave or took any excuse.
I can stand out the war with any man.
I did not think of going to give myself a position, but for the sake of common humanity.
I stand at the altar of the murdered men, and, while I live, I fight their cause.
I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.
It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm.
Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head (not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but) how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?
Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift-there is nothing small about it.
Mankind must make heaven before we can 'go to heaven' (as the phrase is), in this world as in any other.
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.
Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.
To be 'in charge' is certainly not only to carry out the proper measures yourself but to see that every one else does so too; to see that no one either willfully or ignorantly thwarts or prevents such measures. It is neither to do everything yourself nor to appoint a number of people to each duty, but to ensure that each does that duty to which he is appointed.
To understand God's thoughts, one must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose.
Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.
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.
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.'
Women never have a half-hour in all their lives (excepting before or after anybody is up in the house) that they can call their own, without fear of offending or of hurting someone.
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(May 12 ia also the birthday of iddu Krishnamurti, Yogi Berra, George Carlin.)
Categories: Florence Nightingale, Quotes of the day
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