A Nurse Is To Maintain The Air

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.

[on Thomas Babington Macaulay:] He Was A Most Disagreeable Companion To My Fancy ... His Conversation Was A Procession Of One.

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.

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.

To Understand God's Thoughts, One Must Study Statistics, For These Are The Measure Of His Purpose.