“The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.”

It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm. It is quite necessary nevertheless to lay down such a principle.

The ‘kingdom of heaven is within,’ indeed, but we must also create one without, because we are intended to act upon our circumstances.

I cannot remember the time when I have not longed for death. For years and years I used to watch for death as no sick man ever watched for the morning.

I can stand out the war with any man.

Remember my name– you’ll be screaming it later.

For the sick it is important to have the best.

There is no part of my life, upon which I can look back without pain.

The craving for ‘the return of the day’, which the sick so constantly evince, is generally nothing but the desire for light.

I am not yet worthy; and I will live to deserve to be called a Trained Nurse.

The very elements of what constitutes good nursing are as little understood for the well as for the sick. The same laws of health, or of nursing, for they are in reality the same, obtain among the well as among the sick.

There are no specific diseases only specific disease conditions.

Woman has nothing but her affections,–and this makes her at once more loving and less loved.

The first possibility of rural cleanliness lies in water supply.

I stand at the altar of murdered men, and, while I live, I fight their cause.

The only English patients I have ever known refuse tea, have been typhus cases; and the first sign of their getting better was their craving again for tea.

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