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And what nursing has to do in either case, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.
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“And what nursing has to do in either case, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.”

Florence Nightingale

Source
Notes on Nursing
Date
1860
Meaning

Meaning of “And what nursing has to do in either…”

Nightingale describes nursing as arranging conditions around a patient so recovery processes are supported rather than treating nursing itself as the direct source of cure.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Notes on Nursing, represented in Project Gutenberg #17366. This is nineteenth-century nursing theory in Nightingale’s own framework and is retained for historical context, not offered as current medical advice or a substitute for professional care.

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Helping OthersLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceResponsibilityServiceThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionHealthProfessionalism
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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.
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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.”

Florence Nightingale · Notes on Hospitals · 1863
Meaning & context

Nightingale begins hospital design from the principle that an institution created to care for sick people must first avoid adding preventable harm through its own conditions.

Source details

Notes on Hospitals, third edition (1863), Preface / opening requirement. In the represented Google Books copy the sentence is exposed in the front matter as “It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm.” This remains Nightingale’s nineteenth-century hospital-reform argument and historical professional evidence, not current medical guidance.

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I must serve the race which needs me most.
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“I must serve the race which needs me most.”

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper · Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted · 1892
Voice: Fictional character · Iola Leroy
Meaning & context

Iola turns identity into a practical commitment: she decides that her education and abilities should be used where she believes her work is most needed.

Source details

Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted, represented by Project Gutenberg #12352. Iola says this while declining Dr. Gresham’s marriage proposal and explaining her commitment to serve the Black community after emancipation. It is fictional character speech embedded in Harper’s Reconstruction-era racial and social argument.

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For action is indeed the sole medium of expression for ethics.
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“For action is indeed the sole medium of expression for ethics.”

Jane Addams · Democracy and Social Ethics · 1902
Meaning & context

Addams argues that ethical ideas become meaningful as social morality only when they are tested through concrete choices and conduct rather than remaining abstract commentary.

Source details

Democracy and Social Ethics, chapter “Political Reform,” Project Gutenberg #15487. Addams immediately contrasts moral action with merely speculating about morality, placing the sentence inside her Progressive Era social-ethics argument.

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Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government.
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“Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government.”

Thomas Paine · Rights of Man · 1791–1792
Meaning & context

Paine argues that everyday social order also grows from mutual dependence, custom, exchange, and cooperation rather than being created entirely by government.

Source details

Rights of Man, Part II; the surrounding passage attributes much ordinary social coordination to society itself.

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It is to become a nobler creature, and to help all others to a higher human status during this brief span of earthly life.
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“It is to become a nobler creature, and to help all others to a higher human status during this brief span of earthly life.”

Elizabeth Blackwell · Essays in Medical Sociology · 1902
Voice: Authorial / signed preface voice · Elizabeth Blackwell (address voice)
Meaning & context

Blackwell describes professional and human development as inseparable from helping raise the condition and opportunities of other people.

Source details

Essays in Medical Sociology, Volume II, Essay I, ‘The Influence of Women in the Profession of Medicine,’ address delivered at the London School of Medicine for Women in October 1889, around printed page 8, Project Gutenberg #69998. Blackwell defines the great object of human life as becoming nobler and helping others while developing her historical argument about women's responsibilities and contribution to medicine. It remains period professional/social-reform rhetoric, not current clinical or professional guidance.

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Being only a chemist hampers me.
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“Being only a chemist hampers me.”

Jerome K. Jerome · Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) · 1889
Voice: Fictional character · Chemist
Meaning & context

The chemist’s dry reply makes the absurd prescription funny: beefsteak, beer, walking, sleep, and common sense require a shop far broader than an ordinary pharmacy.

Source details

Three Men in a Boat, Chapter I; the chemist says this after reading the doctor’s non-pharmaceutical prescription.