Statistics is the most important science in the whole world: for upon it depends the practical application of every other science and of every art: the one science essential to all political and social administration, all education, all organization based on experience, for it only gives results of our experience.

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Never give nor take an excuse.

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Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. For the greatest things grow by God's Law out of the smallest. But to live your life you must discipline it. You must not fritter it away in "fair purpose, erring act, inconstant will" but make your thoughts, your acts, all work to the same end and that end, not self but God. That is what we call character.

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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.

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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.

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The most important practical lesson than can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe.

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Unnecessary noise is the most cruel abuse of care which can be inflicted on either the sick or the well.

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

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Nursing is a progressive art such that to stand still is to go backwards.

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I use the word nursing for want of a better.

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