Clara Barton quotes

The door that nobody else will go in at, seems always to swing open widely for me.
-- Clara Barton

#Swings #Doors #Nurse

I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.
-- Clara Barton

#Success #Past #Nurse

It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I cannot afford the luxury of a closed mind.
-- Clara Barton

#Luxury #Mind #Done

I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man's work for less than a man's pay.
-- Clara Barton

#Men #May #Pay

An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness.
-- Clara Barton

#Selfish #Evil #Suffering

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

#Military #War #Fighting

Economy, prudence, and a simple life are the sure masters of need, and will often accomplish that which, their opposites, with a fortune at hand, will fail to do.
-- Clara Barton

#Simple #Hands #Opposites

The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.
-- Clara Barton

#Father #Blood #Patriotism

You must never so much think as whether you like it or not, whether it is bearable or not; you must never think of anything except the need, and how to meet it.
-- Clara Barton

#Nursing #Thinking #Needs

The surest test of discipline is its absence.
-- Clara Barton

#Teaching #Discipline #Tests

It is wise statesmanship which suggests that in time of peace we must prepare for war, and it is no less a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.
-- Clara Barton

#Wise #War #Preparation

Let me go, let me go.
-- Clara Barton

#Let Me Go #Last Words #Let Me

While soldiers can stand and fight.I can fight and feed them
-- Clara Barton

#Fighting #Soldier

I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?
-- Clara Barton

#Soldier #Doe #Coats

What could I do but go with them Civil War soldiers, or work for them and my country? The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.
-- Clara Barton

#Country #Father #War

People should not say that this or that is not worth learning, giving as their reason that it will not be put to use. They can no more know what information they will need in the future than they will know the weather two hundred years from today.
-- Clara Barton

#Years #Weather #Two

My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel--not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.
-- Clara Barton

#Home #Writing #Men

What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance.
-- Clara Barton

#War #Army #Cities

Everybody's business is nobody's business, and nobody's business is my business.
-- Clara Barton

#Unique

This conflict is one thing I've been waiting for. I'm well and strong and young - young enough to go to the front. If I can't be a soldier, I'll help soldiers.
-- Clara Barton

#Strong #Waiting #Soldier

My business is staunching blood, and feeding fainting men.
-- Clara Barton

#Men #Blood #Feeding

If I were to speak of war, it would not be to show you the glories of conquering armies but the mischief and misery they strew in their tracks; and how, while they marched on with tread of iron and plumes proudly tossing in the breeze, some one must follow closely in their steps, crouching to the earth, toiling in the rain and darkness, shelterless themselves, with no thought of pride or glory, fame or praise, or reward; hearts breaking with pity, faces bathed in tears and hands in blood. This is the side which history never shows.
-- Clara Barton

#War #Rain #Heart

A ball had passed between my body and the right arm which supported him, cutting through the sleeve and passing through his chest from shoulder to shoulder. There was no more to be done for him and I left him to his rest. I have never mended that hole in my sleeve.
-- Clara Barton

#Cutting #Arms #Balls

Others are writing my biography, and let it rest as they elect to make it. I have lived my life, well and ill, always less well than I wanted it to be but it is, as it is, and as it has been; so small a thing, to have had so much about it!
-- Clara Barton

#Writing #Biographies #Ill

I went to the Senate, accomplished nothing as usual.
-- Clara Barton

#Usual #Accomplished