This list of nursing quotes will inspire you to keep being kind and compassionate to others!
What comes to your mind when you think about nursing? Like most people, you probably think of an image of an assistant who draws blood or administers medications. But, nursing is much more than that!
Nursing is a profession full of hardworking individuals who help people get better. They are among the most accessible, compassionate, and responsive health care professionals out there.
That is why they are the first people we encounter whenever we go to the hospital to seek medical attention.
Unfortunately, nurses are underappreciated.
So, read this list of nursing quotes we’ve prepared and recognize nurses’ crucial role in our society!
Continue reading the entire list below.
Best Nursing Quotes
1. “Nurse: just another word to describe a person strong enough to tolerate anything and soft enough to understand anyone.” – Anonymous
2. “When a person decides to become a nurse, they make the most important decision of their lives. They choose to dedicate themselves to the care of others.” – Margaret Harvey
3. “As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
4. “Nurses are a unique kind. They have this insatiable need to care for others, which is both their greatest strength and fatal flaw.” – Jean Watson
5. “Save one life; you’re a hero. Save 100 lives; you’re a nurse.” – Anonymous
6. “To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can, in spite of all we go through, is to be a nurse.” – Rawsi Williams
7. “Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription.” – Val Saintsbury
8. “Nursing is great for so many reasons, but there is one reason that means more than any poll results, amount of money, or job security—nurses make a difference.” – Brittney Wilson
9. “Every nurse was drawn to nursing because of a desire to care, to serve, or to help.” – Christina Feist-Heilmeier
10. “When you’re a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.” – Anonymous
Inspirational Quotes About Nursing
11. “No matter how difficult the days may get, don’t forget the reason you became a nurse.” – Anonymous
12. “A nurse is not what you do. It is what you are—I am a nurse. It’s not what I do; it’s what I am.” – Anonymous
13. “You’re not ‘just a nurse.’ Take pride in what you do. You’re saving lives and making a difference in someone’s life.” – Anonymous
14. “Rejoice in your work; never lose sight of the nursing leader you are now and the nursing leader you will become.” – Sue Fitzsimons
15. “If you are a nurse, then you should wear the title with pride. Not many people are capable of doing what you do, and even fewer are capable of doing it with the charisma and passion you do it with.” – Anonymous
16. “Nurses are always there; you care for us from the earliest years. You look after us in our happiest and saddest times. And for many, you look after us and our families at the end of our lives. Your dedication and professionalism are awe-inspiring.” – Catherine Elizabeth Middleton
17. “For us who nurse, our nursing is a thing, which, unless in it we are making progress every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back. The more experience we gain, the more progress we can make.” – Anonymous
18. “Nurses have come a long way in a few short decades. In the past, our attention focused on physical, mental, and emotional healing. Now we talk of healing your life, healing the environment, and healing the planet.” – Lynn Keegan
19. “When I think about all the patients and their loved ones 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 tapestry that is my career in nursing.” – Donna Cardillo
Short Nursing Quotes for Your Motivation
20. “Nurses—one of the few blessings of being ill.” – Sara Moss-Wolfe
21. “Nurses are the heart of healthcare.” – Donna Cardillo
22. “A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope.” – Carrie Latet
23. “Care for one; that’s love. Care for hundreds; that’s nursing.” – Anonymous
24. “Be the nurse you would want as a patient.” – Anonymous
25. “A nurse is a compassion in scrubs.” – Lexie Saige
26. “Whether a person is male or female, a nurse is a nurse.” – Gary Veale
27. “Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital.” – Carrie Latet
28. “Caring is the essence of nursing.” – Jean Watson
Nursing Quotes That Zoom in on Their Responsibilities
29. “As nurses, we know suffering. We are fully aware of how precious each moment of life is.” – Patricia Bratianu
30. “Nursing is not for the empty of heart, nor the faint of heart.” – Anonymous
31. “Being a nurse means to hold all your own tears and start drawing smiles on people’s faces.” – Dana Basem
32. “Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the joy, every day, while we are just doing our jobs.” – Christine Belle
33. “Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy—nurses are rarely short on caring.” – Sharon Hudacek
34. “Because nurses have the most direct patient care, they have much influence on serious treatment decisions. It is a very high stakes job.” – Judy Evans
35. “Being a nurse isn’t about grades; it’s about being who we are. No book can teach you how to cry with a patient. No class can teach you how to tell your family that their parents have died or are dying. No professor can teach you how to find dignity in giving someone a bed bath. A nurse is not about the pills or charting. It’s about being able to love people when they are at their weakest moments.” – Anonymous
Nursing Quotes to Help You Become a Better Health Care Provider
36. “To be a nurse means to be strong but tender, brave but kind. That’s a real grit in character we don’t come across every day.” – Anonymous
37. “The character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses.” – Carolyn Jarvis
38. “Nursing is not for everyone. It takes a very strong, intelligent, and compassionate person to take on the ills of the world with passion and purpose and work to maintain the health and well-being of the planet.” – Donna Cardillo
Nursing Quotes for Those Who Care a Lot About Their Patients
39. “Sometimes I inspire my patients; more often, they inspire me.” – Anonymous
40. “Treat the patient as a whole, not just the hole in the patient.” – Anonymous
41. “And what nursing has to do in either case is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.” – Florence Nightingale
Nursing Quotes to Lift You up After a Bummer of a Day
42. “I’ve never really cared for what an unsung hero is until a nurse took care of me.” – Anonymous
43. “Nurses are there when the last breath is taken, and nurses are there when the first breath is taken. Although it is more enjoyable to celebrate the birth, it is just as important to comfort in death.” – Christine Belle
44. “A nurse is one who opens the eyes of a newborn and gently closes the eyes of a dying man. It is indeed a high blessing to be the first and last to witness the beginning and end of life.” – Anonymous
45. “Every nurse is an angel with the key to a healthy community! All in caring for patients is part of the nursing soul!” – Aleksandar Radunovic
46. “The doctors may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable.” – Jodi Picoult
47. “The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking place beside the physician and the priest.” – William Osler
Funny Nursing Quotes
48. “Nursing—a noble profession requiring a twisted sense of humor and the special ability to gag your gag reflex!” – Anonymous
49. “Nursing is not a career; it’s a post-apocalyptic survival skill.” – Anonymous
50. “No, I will not rub your feet. I am a nurse, not a masseur.” – Anonymous
51. “I’m a nurse because miracle worker isn’t an official title.” – Anonymous
52. “Nurse: the first person you see after saying, ‘Hold my beer and watch this!’” – Anonymous
53. “How many nurses does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None! They delegate it to the nursing student.” – Anonymous
54. “Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.’” – Florence Nightingale
55. “How can anybody hate nurses? Nobody hates nurses. The only time you hate a nurse is when they’re giving you an enema.” – Warren Beatty
56. “The three words most people want to hear: ‘I love you.’ The three words nurses want to hear: ‘alert, oriented, and ambulatory.’” – Anonymous
57. “Being a nurse is weird. I can keep a poker face through trauma but have a mental breakdown over losing my favorite pen.” – Anonymous
58. “Be nice to me. I may be your nurse someday, and remember, catheters and needles come in sizes that I choose!” – Anonymous
Profound Nursing Quotes to Read and Reflect On
59. “Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backward.” – Florence Nightingale
60. “Nursing encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken.” – Myrtle Aydelotte
61. “Nursing is not just an art; it has a heart. Nursing is not just a science, but it has a conscience.” – Anonymous
62. “Remember: nurses are like icebergs. At any one time, you are only seeing what they are actually doing.” – Ian Miller
63. “Nursing care comes in many forms. Sometimes it is the ability to make someone feel physically comfortable by various means. Other times it is the ability to improve the body’s ability to achieve or maintain health. But often, it is an uncanny yet well-honed knack to see beyond the obvious and address, in some way, the deeper needs of the human soul.” – Donna Wilk Cardillo
64. “The nurse is temporarily the consciousness of the unconscious, the love of life of the suicidal, the leg of the amputee, the eyes of the newly blind, a means of locomotion for the newborn, knowledge and confidence for the young mother, a voice for those too weak to speak, and so on.” – Virginia Henderson
Nursing Quotes to Expand Your Knowledge in This Field
65. “Nurses serve their patients in the most important capacities. We know that they serve as our first lines of communication when something goes wrong or when we are concerned about health.” – Lois Capps
66. “Nursing is rarely boring or predictable. In a few other professions, we are present at life’s most momentous events, from birth to death, from crisis to recovery. For those who thrive on variety and the full spectrum of human drama, every day brings a range of new situations.” – Diane Barnet
67. “I use the word ‘nursing’ for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet all at the least expense of vital power to the patient.” – Florence Nightingale
More Nursing Quotes for Everyone Who Wants to Pursue This Profession
68. “Doctors are sort of scary. Nurses, on the other hand, with their reassuring smiles, are always on our side.” – Anonymous
69. “The hours are long. The work is hard, and the pay is inadequate for the amount of concentrated energy required. A nurse, however, does not view her profession dispassionately. It is too much a part of her.” – Monica Dickens
70. “If a nurse declines to do these kinds of things for her patient because it is not her business, I should say that nursing was not her calling. I have seen surgical sisters, women whose hands were worth to them two or three guineas a week, down upon their knees scouring a room or hut because they thought it otherwise not fit for their patients to go into.” – Florence Nightingale
Did This List of Nursing Quotes Help You Better Appreciate Their Sacrifices?
Nurses are the frontliners of healthcare. Every day, they use their skills, knowledge, and passion to help people. It is their daily mission to give their patients the care they need to heal or the comfort they need to feel safe.
With all the challenges we’ve experienced in the past years, everyone knows how challenging and exhausting it is to be a nurse. After all, if you’re a nurse, even if the world goes into lockdown because of a pandemic, you’re still required to work. Indeed, the medical and healthcare industry will not function without nurses.
Therefore, we should express gratitude to nurses because they deserve all the love and respect we can give them. Without their hard work, many patients would be at greater risk for infection, injury, or even death.
With that, we hope this list of nursing quotes was able to make you understand their essential role in our society. Remember, nursing is not just about taking care of patients. Instead, nursing is serving others and making the world a better place!
