Inspirational quotes
1. “We need people who can dream of things that never were.”
—John F. Kennedy
2. “I attribute my success to this: I never gave nor accepted an excuse.”
— Florence Nightingale
3. “The world is divided into two classes: those who take the best of what there is
and enjoy it, and those who wish for something better and create it.”
—Florence Nightingal
4. “One perk of being a nurse is that no matter what visual or odorous environment
you encounter, you will still be able to eat.”
—Vilma Saviski, RN
5.
“Believe in yourself … it’s absolutely necessary in order for your staff to believe
in you.”
—Jeanna Bozell, RN, author of A Nurse Leader’s Little Instruction Book
6. “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”
—Mark Twain
7. “A 1% change in employee morale equals a 2% change in patient satisfaction.”
—Press Ganey
8. “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize
them.”
—Ann Landers, columnist
9. “Although there may be tragedy in your life, there is always the possibility to
triumph. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from. The ability to
triumph begins with you. Always.”
—Oprah Winfrey
10. “Workers always give to the organization in direct proportion to what they
perceive themselves receiving from it.”
—Jack Hawley, in his book Reawakening the Spirit in Work
11. “What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.”
—Hugh Mulligan, Associated Press Special correspondent
12. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become
more, you are a leader.”
—John Quincy Adams
13. “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking
we were at when we created them.”
—Albert Einstein
14. “People have the inner resources to become anything they want to be. Challenge
just becomes the vehicle for tapping into those inner resources.”
—Eric Weihenmeyer, blind mountain climber who has summitted the highest
peak on four of the seven continents, including Mt. Everest
15. “I try to remember that good, intelligent people actually need day-to-day praise
and thanks for the job they do. I remind myself to get up out of my chair, turn off
my computer, and go sit or stand by them to see what they’re doing, ask about
their challenges, and find out if they need additional help. Most of all, I tell them
in all honesty that the job they’re doing is important to me, to our company, and
especially to our customers.”
—John Ball, service training manager at American Honda Motor Company
16. “People want to work in a place where they feel inspired.”
—Ryan Wuerch, founder of Motricity, a leading wireless service provider
17. “Life is not a brief candle to me. It’s a splendid torch which I have hold of for the
moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to
future generations.”
—George Bernard Shaw, Playwright and Nobel Prize winner
18. “Pretend that every single person has a sign around his neck that says, ‘Make me
feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in building your staff, you will succeed
in life.”
—Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
19. “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering their attitudes.”
—William James, philosopher and psychologist
20. “Be entrepreneurial. What one needs in government, and in the private sector, is
imagination. If you can come up with something a little different in the way of
understanding a problem, or approaching it in a way that combines different
resources, then you won’t have to wait for opportunities; you’ll make your own!”
—Alan Keyes, former United States Assistant Secretary of State
21. “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking
something different”
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Hungarian born physiologist who became a naturalized
American and won the Nobel Prize
22. “Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find
one good reason why it will.”
—Dr. Robert Anthony, PhD, author and consultant
23. “Attitudes are contagious; is yours worth catching?”
—Dennis and Wendy Mannering, authors of Attitudes are Contagious: Are Yours
Worth Catching?
24. “Your life today is a result of your thinking yesterday. Your life tomorrow will be
determined by what you think today.”
—John Maxwell, author of Think on These Things
25. “Hard work, dedication, and desire don’t guarantee you a thing, but without them
you don’t stand a chance.”
—Pat Riley, National Basketball Association head coach
26. “Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation
by a surgeon.”
—Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, 1953-1961
27. “Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.”
—Henry Ford
28. “Far and away the best prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work
worth doing.”
—President Theodore Roosevelt
29. “Nursing is the light in institutional darkness.”
—Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN_BC, FAAN
30. “Nursing creates the culture of the healthcare organization; if nurses don't drive
change, it won't happen, and if nurses don't change, it doesn't matter who else
does.”
—Timothy Porter O’Grady, DM, EdD, APRN, FAAN
This was featured in Nurse Retention Toolkit: Everyday Ways to Recognize and Reward
Nurses, ©2008 HCPro, Inc. To find out more about the book or to purchase a copy, visit
www.hcmarketplace.com/prod-6551.html.