56 Uplifting Quotes To Honor Our Nurses

Nurses endure long hours, sore feet, and complaints while calming scared patients and worried loved ones. These dedicated professionals have the ability to make you feel like you're their only patient at any moment. However, with this intense job comes burnout. At the end of the day, many nurses agree that they wouldn't choose any other job. To honor our nurses, we wanted to share some of our favorite inspirational and humorous quotes. Many of the quotes are from unknown authors, but we bet most of them came from nurses! Share one or two of these quotes to thank your favorite nurse today.

Inspirational Nurse Quotes

• "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
• "No matter how difficult the days may get, don't forget the reason you became a nurse." – Unknown
• "Nurse: just another word to describe a person strong enough to tolerate everything and soft enough to understand everyone." – Unknown
• "Every nurse has that one patient that they'll remember forever." – Unknown
• "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse." – Florence Nightingale
• "The character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses." – Carolyn Jarvis
• “When you are a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.” – Unknown
• “Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we touch.” – Judy Blume
• “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives.” – Florence Nightingale

Funny Nurse Quotes

• "Don't mess with me, I get paid to stab people with sharp objects." – Unknown
• "Be nice to me…I may be your nurse someday and remember…catheters and needles come in sizes that I choose!" – Unknown
• "May your cup runneth over, unless it's that urine specimen cup you're trying to hand me." – Unknown
• “Be nice to your nurse. They’re the person who chooses your catheter size.” – Unknown
• “Nursing would be a dream job if there were no doctors.” – Gerhard Kocher
• “Shift change is my favorite time of day.” – Unknown
• “Always thank your nurse! Sometimes they’re the only one between you and a hearse.” – Warren Beatty
• “Yes, I am a nurse. No, I don’t want to look at it.” – Unknown

Quotes That Show Appreciation

• "Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription." – Val Saintsbury
• “America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.” – Barack Obama
• "The doctors may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable. – Jodi Picoult
• “Nurses are a unique kind. They have this insatiable need to care for others, which is both their biggest strength and fatal flaw.” – Dr. Jean Watson
• “A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope.” – Carrie Latet
• “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
• “Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.” – Dag Hammarskjold
• “Remember, nurses are like icebergs. At any one time, you are only seeing what they are actually doing.” – Ian Miller
• “Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy…nurses are rarely short on caring.” – Sharon Hudacek
• “Save one person, you’re a hero. Save hundreds, you’re a nurse.” – Unknown
• “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.” – Stephen Ambrose
• “Nurses—one of the few blessings of being ill.” —Sara Moss-Wolfe
• "You didn't even know me, yet you treated me like family…I'll never forget that. Thank you." – Unknown

Motivational Quotes for Nurses

• "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle." – Plato
• “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams
• “You treat a disease: you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win...no matter the outcome.” – Robin Williams, Patch Adams
• “Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen every day.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
• “To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; that is to be a nurse.” – Rawsi Williams
• “Knowing is better than wondering, waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worse, beats the hell out of never trying.” – Grey’s Anatomy
• “It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing”. – Mother Teresa
• “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.” — Aristotle
• “There are only four kinds of people in the world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.” — Rosalyn Carter
• “Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.” — Emory Austin
• “What you do makes a difference. And you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
• “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” – Mother Teresa
• “Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.” – Charles Dickens
• "Save one life, you're a hero. Save a hundred lives, you're a nurse." – Unknown

Short Quotes for Nurses

• "Nurses are the heart of healthcare." – Donna Wilk Cardillo
• “For the sick, it is important to have the best.” – Florence Nightingale
• “From caring comes courage.” – Lao Tzu
• “Be the nurse you want to work with.” – Unknown
• “Treat every patient like they are family.” – Unknown
• "No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." – Aesop
• “It is not enough to be compassionate—you must act.” – The Dalai Lama
• “I never dreamed about success—I worked for it.” – Estée Lauder
• “Nurses are angels in comfortable shoes.” – Unknown
• “I’m a nurse because miracle worker isn’t an official title.” – Unknown