Best Nursing Quotes

[Joe V]

I love to read great quotes that are related to nursing. One of the my favorite nursing quotes is:

Maya Angelou said:

"They may forget your name but they will never forget how you made them feel."

Please share your favorite nursing quotes that are either specifically related to nursing or that are relevant to nursing. Please site the author of the quote if known.

Also, please click the LIKE button to indicate your favorite quotes nurses share. (Only logged in members see the Like button, New to allnurses? Take a minute and register free today)

[AngelicDarkness]

"I'm sorry our pillows aren't like the Hilton. One day we will strive to get better pillows"

- My preceptor in my 2nd year of nursing school, ortho rotation (Male patient got both his knees done b/c his friends in a private hospital got "drinks and meals and the best beds".

[Joe V]

Another good one...

Dag Hammarskjold said:

Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.

[jhall9165]

THESE ARE MY FAVORITE ONES!

"I wanna do something that matters, say something different. Something that sets the whole world on it's ear. I want to do something better with the time I've been given, and I want to try to touch a few hearts in this life. Leave nothin' less than something that says 'I Was Here'"

"You treat a disease: You win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win. No matter the outcome."

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

"When I wake up in the morning, I want alarm bells to go off in Hell and the Devil to snarl, 'Oh, crap, she's awake!'"

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Quote

When I think about all the patients and their loved ones that I have worked with over the years, I know most of them don't remember me nor I them. But I do know that I gave a little piece of myself to each of them and they to me and those threads make up the beautiful tapestry in my mind that is my career in nursing.

~Donna Wilk Cardillo, A Daybook for Beginning Nurses

Exactly my sentiments, with a few names forever etched in my mind and heart.

[Ashley_RN]

"To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through... that is what it is to be a nurse."

- Rawsi Williams

Love this... and this thread! Keep em coming! :)

[lailaniboriqua]

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.", Helen Keller

[Davey Do]

"You might be a Nurse if you believe every Patient needs TLC: Thorazine, Lorazepam, and Compazine."

[casi, ASN, RN]

I used part of this on my graduation announcements

Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts. ~Florence Nightingale

[FancypantsRN]

"I'll be back in two shakes" my most common quote to my patients : )

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

"You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?

Just keep swimming

Just keep swimming

Just keep swimming swimming swimming

What do we do we swim, swim, swim

OH HO HO How I love to swim

When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to"

~~~Dory, Finding Nemo

This mantra goes through my head quite a lot during a stressful shift. How can you have this going through your hea and not smile..AND keep swimming?!