66 Inspirational Nurse Quotes to Lift Your Mood

Inspirational nurse quotes have the power to inspire, educate and transform how nurses are seen in healthcare.

It also impacts how nurses perceive their role in providing exceptional patient care.

Hopefully, these Inspiring quotes created by nurses, for nurses, and inspired by nurses help get you through the day!

Carrie Latet Nurse quote

Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital.

Carrie Latet

 

Jean Watson quote

Caring is the essence of nursing.

Jean Watson
Rawsi Williams Quote

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
 
William Osler Quote

The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.

William Osler
Val Saintsbury Quote

Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription.

Val Saintsbury
Carolyn Jarvis Quote

The character of a nurse is just as important as the knowledge he/she possesses.

Carolyn Jarvis
 
Florence Nightingale Quote

Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.

Florence Nightingale
Unknown nurse quote

Save one life and you’re a hero, save one hundred lives and you’re a nurse

Unknown
Clara Barton Quote

I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.

Clara Barton
 
Barack Obama Nurse Quote

America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.

Barack Obama
Clara Barton Quote

I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.

Clara Barton
Stephen Ambrose Quote

It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.

Stephen Ambrose
 
Gerhard Kocher Quote

Nursing would be a dream job if there were no doctors.

Gerhard Kocher
Sara Moss-Wolfe Quote

Nurses, one of the few blessings of being ill.

Sara Moss-Wolfe
Donna Wilk Cardillo Quote

Nurses are the heart of healthcare.

Donna Wilk Cardillo
 
Dag Hammarskjold Quote

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

Dag Hammarskjold
Cass Canfield Quote

Some people think that doctors and nurses can put scrambled eggs back in the shell.

Cass Canfield
Warren Beatty Quote

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
 
Donna Wilk Cardillo Nurse 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
Carrie Latet Nurse Quote

A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope.

Carrie Latet
Norman Cousins Nurse Quote

Drugs are not always necessary, belief in recovery always is.

Norman Cousins
 
Ovid Nurse Quote

Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.

Ovid
Lexie Saige Quote

A nurse is compassion in scrubs

Lexie Saige
Elizabeth Kenny Quote

Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse.

Elizabeth Kenny
 
Unknown nurse quote

Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing!

Unknown
Sharon Hudacek Quote

Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy… nurses are rarely short on caring.

Sharon Hudacek
Christine Belle Quote

Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the job, every day, while we are “just doing our jobs”.

Christine Belle
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 28

Every nurse was drawn to nursing because of a desire to care, to serve, to help.

Christina Feist-Heilmeier
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 29
Nursing is one of the fine arts: I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.
Florence Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 30
You treat a disease: you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win, no matter the outcome.
Robin Williams
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 31
Nurses are angels in comfortable shoes!
Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 32
No matter how difficult the days may get, don’t forget the reason you became a nurse.
Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 33
Every nurse has that one patient they’ll remember forever!
Unknown
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 34
I attribute success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.
Florence Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 35
I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions, which bring results.
Florence Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 36
Okay, “tell me exactly what happened”, is not the same as, “tell me your life story”.
Unknown
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 37
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
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 38
When you’re a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.
Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 39
Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.
Charles Dickens
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 40

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Mahatma Gandhi
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 41
Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives.
Florence Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 42
Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.
Mother Teresa
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 43
Nurses. One of the few blessings of being ill.
Sara Moss-Wolfe
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 44
Be the nurse you would want as a patient.
Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 45
Not all angels have wings. some have scrubs.
Unknown
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 46

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 47
Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 48
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Chinese proverb
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 49
Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.
Aristotle
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 50

If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.

John Maxwell
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 51
May your scrubs be comfy, your coffee be strong, and your Monday be short.
Unknown
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 52
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.
Earl Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 53
When you feel like quitting, remember why you started.
Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 54
I’ve come to the realization that I’ll touch anything as long as I have gloves on.
Unknown
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 55
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a small, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest accomplishment of the smallest act of caring. All of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 56
Nursing friendships are a different kind of friendship. Like, I’ll hold the butt cheeks while you clean the butt crack kind of friendship.
Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 57
Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, with for more wisdom.
Earl Shoaf
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 58

The three words most people want to hear is, “I love you”. The three words most nurses want to hear is, “Alert, Oriented, and Ambulatory”.

Unknown
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 59
Nursing is a progressive art, such that to stand still is to go backwards.
Florence Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 60
Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle.
Plato
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 61
It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing.
Mother Teresa
Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen every day.
H. Jackson Brown jr.
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 63
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
 
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 64

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.

Florence Nightingale
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 65
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
William Shakespeare
INSPIRATIONAL NURSE QUOTE 66
Being a nurse means to hold your own tears and start drawing smiles on peoples faces.
Dana Basem

 

Being a nurse is exhausting. However, the knowledge and power to help heal others keep them going in challenging times. While nurses are strong-spirited, positive, and focused even, they need a little pick me up every once in a while.

The Value of Inspirational Nurse Quotes

Nurses spend their entire shifts providing exceptional care to patients requiring medical assistance. They offer patients emotional support, bedside aid, and education to enable them to recover and make better lifestyle choices.

They also help the patient’s families by offering emotional support, keeping them updated, and answering important questions. As a result, nurses often engage in meaningful work that few careers offer.

Healthcare work and direct patient care can be stressful, challenging, and exhausting. Not every patient or family member understands the challenges nurses face or appreciates their hard work.

Some patients are eternally grateful for their help. Unfortunately, others may have unrealistic expectations or don’t understand what nurses go through daily.

Many nurses experience stress, burnout, and exhaustion from work overload or management challenges. As a result, they must keep a positive attitude and remain focused on their purpose.

Inspiring nurse quotes provide friendly members of why nurses took the oath to become healthcare workers. It also gives students a reason to pursue the healthcare profession and stay on track when nursing school gets hard.

Not every day is going to be positive, exciting, or motivating. Some days may even cause nurses to question their long-term interest in this profession. 

Everyone needs a pick me up at times when work becomes challenging to manage daily. Therefore, keeping inspiring nurse quotes nearby is highly beneficial to maintaining a balanced mind, attitude, and outlook on work, education, and life.

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