Quotessence
Home / Topics / Florence Nightingale Quotes

Florence Nightingale Quotes

Browse 17 quotes about Florence Nightingale.

Related topics

Nightingales

Florence Nightingale Quotes

“[Florence Nightingale's] sister's condition was all too common among many a well-off spinster, 'condemned to spend her days in a meaningless round of trivial occupations, which ate away at her vital strength.' Parthenope's illness, Florence thought, was simply caused by boredom, 'by the conventional life of the present phase of civilisation, which fritters away all that is spiritual in women.' Watching Parthenope lose her sanity, her strength, even the ability to walk, had left Florence aghast. She observed that all around her women were 'going mad for the want of something to do'. She was determined to avoid this fate for herself.”

HistoryFeminismMental HealthQueen VictoriaEnglish HistoryHerstoryOppression Of WomenAnti Feminist IdealsFlorence Nightingale
Book:Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow
Create image

“Her statistics were more than a study... For her, Quetelet was the hero as scientist, and the presentation copy of his Physique Sociale is annotated by her on every page. Florence Nightingale believed—and in all the actions of her life acted upon that belief—that the administrator could only be successful if he were guided by statistical knowledge. The legislator—to say nothing of the politician—too often failed for want of this knowledge.”

ScienceBeliefKnowledgeStudyHeroStatisticsFlorence NightingaleNightingaleAdolphe QueteletPhysique SocialeQuetelet
Book:The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton (Cambridge Library Collection - Darwin, Evolution and Genetics)
Create image

“Their 108-year wait for another title was the longest championship drought in sports. The last time they did win the World Series, in 1908, occurred in the lifetimes of Mark Twain, Florence Nightingale, Geronimo, Winslow Homer, and Joshua Chamberlain, and in a world when the Ottoman Empire still existed but the 19th Amendment, talking motion pictures, electrified traffic lights, and world wars did not.”

ChampionshipDroughtMark TwainChampionsChicago CubsFlorence NightingaleGeronimoWinslow Homer
Book:The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse
Create image

“IN MEMORIAM: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE She whom we love, our Lady of Compassion, Can never die, for Love forbids her death. Love has bent down in his old kindly fashion, And breathed upon her his immortal breath. On wounded soldiers, in their anguish lying, Her gentle spirit shall descend like rain. Where the white flag with the red cross is flying, There shall she dwell, the vanquisher of pain.”

PainSpiritLyingDiesWhiteCompassionFashionRedRainCrossesBreathsSoldierFlyingGentleImmortalFlagsWoundedBentAnguishNightingalesFlorenceRed CrossWhite FlagFlorence NightingaleWounded SoldierGentle Spirit
Book:Summer of Love
Create image

“For all her active goodness, Florence Nightingale herself was far from being the angelic figure of popular adulation: according to Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians she was a self-righteous, domineering amazon, who was ruthless in her compassion, merciless in her philantropy, destructive in friendships, obsessional in her list for power, and demonic in her saintliness.”

SelfCompassionFiguresGoodnessActiveListsDestructiveRighteousRuthlessAmazonAngelicSelf RighteousBritish HistoryDemonicNightingalesFlorenceAdulationFlorence Nightingale
Author:David Cannadine
Create image

“Florence Nightingale was an amazing figure. She created the American Red Cross. She saw the suffering from bad health conditions on the battlefield and in the military hospitals, and she fought like crazy to change the conditions; to make sure that the doctors washed their hands and practiced sanitary measures. She put herself at great risks.”

HandsSufferingSawsRiskCrazyConditionsMilitaryFiguresRedCrossesDoctorsHospitalsBattlefieldsNightingalesGreat RiskFlorenceRed CrossSanitaryAmerican Red CrossFlorence NightingaleBad Health
Author:Sharon Lawrence
Create image

“When I was 12 years old, I read Nancy Drew mysteries and biographies of Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale and books about girls who love horses or go to nursing school. I belonged to the Girl Scouts and got A's in school and rarely disobeyed my parents. I still kept a collection of Barbie dolls in my room, and I almost never spoke to boys.”

YearsStillsBookSchoolGirlParentRoomsBoysMysteryHorseCollectionsSpokesBiographiesNursingDollsNancyBarbieNightingalesFlorenceGirl ScoutBarbie DollsNursing SchoolNancy DrewFlorence NightingaleMadame Curie
Author:Joyce Maynard
Create image

“You have the most revolting Florence Nightingale complex,' said Mrs. Smiling. It is not that at all, and well you know it. On the whole, I dislike my fellow beings; I find them so difficult to understand. But I have a tidy mind and untidy lives irritate me. Also, they are uncivilized.”

KnowsMindWellsSaidWholeDifficultFellowsComplexesDislikeTidyNightingalesFlorenceUncivilizedCold Comfort FarmFlorence Nightingale
Book:Cold comfort farm
Create image

“In these days before antiseptics, doctors themselves also suffered high mortality rates. Florence Nightingale, a nurse during the Crimean War (1853-1856), watched one particularly inept surgeon cut both himself and, somehow, a bystander while blundering about during an amputation. Both men contracted an infection and died, as did the patient. Nightingale commented that it was the only surgery she'd ever seen with 300 percent mortality.”

MenWarCuttingPercentDoctorsDiedPatientRateThese DaysMortalityNurseSurgerySurgeonsInfectionNightingalesFlorenceBystandersAmputationFlorence Nightingale
Author:Sam Kean
Create image