These 77 inspirational quotes for healthcare workers are dedicated to all healthcare workers, those brave souls who lay their own lives on the line every day for their patients. (Scroll to the end for a slideshow presentation of all the quotes.)
I’m thinking of those who tend to our physical wellbeing as well as those who help us cope mentally and emotionally with the confusion, fear, anxiety, overwhelm, sadness and grief we are facing due to a pandemic of this magnitude.
These inspiring quotes are also a tribute to all those who work behind the scenes in the healthcare industry, ensuring that our systems work and our services are delivered on time and all those working for the greater good.
These motivational quotes are also for the thought leaders, spiritual leaders, politicians, authors, poets, actors, musicians, comedians, inspirational speakers and healers who help ease our fears and keep us positive during this crazy, awful, emotional period in history.
We salute you. We honour you. We thank you for your service to humanity.
Inspirational Quotes by Healthcare Workers
Hippocrates
Greek Physician Famous for the Hippocratic Oath
Make a habit of two things: to help, or at least to do no harm.
Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.
Marie Curie
Nobel Prize‑winning Chemist
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.
Donald Berwick
Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
I think health care is more about love than most other things.
If there isn’t at the core of these two human beings who have agreed to be in a relationship where one is trying to help relieve the suffering of another, which is love, you can’t get to the right answer here.
William J. Mayo
Physician and one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic
The aim of medicine is to prevent disease and prolong life; the ideal of medicine is to eliminate the need of a physician.
Ewa Kopacz
Polish Prime Minister and Minister of Health
I am a doctor— it’s a profession that may be considered a special mission, a devotion. It calls for involvement, respect, and willingness to help all other people.
Maxim Gorin
Founder of MGME Consulting and Co-Founder of LifeLine Ambulance
A great team isn’t defined only by its leader… a great team must have the ability to meet any challenge that comes it’s way. By collaborating, we can bounce ideas off one another and see what is most likely to make sense in the real world.
Abraham Verghese
Medical Doctor
In an emergency, what treatment is given by ear? Words of Comfort.
William Osler
Physician
It is much more important to know what sort of patient has a disease than what sort of disease a patient has.
Giorgio Baglivi
Armenio‑Italian Physician and Scientist
Let the young know they will never find a more interesting, more instructive book than the patient himself.
Danielle Ofri
Physician
The awe of discovering the human body. The honour of being trusted to give advice. The gratitude for helping someone through a difficult illness. These things never grow old.
Rawsi Williams
Nurse and Attorney at Law
To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through – that is what it is to be a nurse.
Inspirational Quotes for Healthcare Workers
Vivek Murthy
American Physician and Surgeon General
Our health care workers are the heroes of the Covid-19 response.
Stephen Ambrose
American historian
It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.
George Michael
Singer-Songwriter
Nurses, doctors, teachers: these are the people who deserve the credit these days.
Sara Moss-Wolfe
Author
Nurses: one of the few blessings of being ill.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bodybuilder, Actor and Politician
Teachers and nurses get the best seats in heaven.
Joseph Campbell
Author
A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.
Inspirational Quotes by Thought Leaders
Albert Einstein
Physicist
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Marcel Proust
Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey.
Margaret Mead
Anthropologist
Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.
Jeff Bezos
CEO Amazon
We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.
Helen Keller
Author and Disability Rights Activist
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.
Maya Angelou
Author and Poet
They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poet
The first wealth is health.
Lewis Carol
Author
One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.
Anne Frank
Author
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment to improve the world.
Inspirational Quotes by Spiritual Leaders
Mother Teresa
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
Dalai Lama
In this beautiful interview, the 14th Dalai Lama expresses his gratitude to healthcare workers:
So, regarding this illness, noble doctors, nurses, are even willing to sacrifice their own life. I really appreciate. Wonderful.
Selfish, think just (about) yourself is narrow. Shortsighted. …So altruism is (the) ultimate source of happiness…Altruism, that really brings inner peace, inner strength.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Real compassion comes from seeing the suffering of others. You feel a sense of responsibility, and you want to do something for them.
There is one aspect to our experience of suffering that is of vital importance. When you are aware of your pain and suffering, it helps you to develop your capacity for empathy, the capacity that allows you to relate to other people’s feelings and suffering. This enhances your capacity for compassion towards others.
As you breathe in, cherish yourself. As you breathe out, cherish all beings.
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.
Reverend Edward Everett Hale
Author, Historian and Clergyman
I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds – all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.
Marianne Williamson
Author – Excerpt from A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Vietnamese Buddhist Monk
Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos – the trees, the clouds, everything.
The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.
People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom.
There is no way to happiness – happiness is the way.
Inspirational Quotes by World Leaders
Theodore Roosevelt
American President
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.
Mahatma Gandhi
Indian Lawyer and Politician
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service to others.
Where there is love there is life.
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.
Nelson Mandela
South African President
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.
Inspirational Quotes by Comedians
I’ll close this post off with some humour because I’ve found that when I’m not feeling my best laughter truly heals.
Related: How to Stay Positive During the Pandemic
Enjoy these wise words by Hunter Doherty Adams, better known as Patch Adams. You may remember the wonderful movie in his name, where Patch Adams was played by the late great Robin Williams.
Hunter Doherty “Patch” Adams
Physician, Comedian, Social Activist and Author
You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you’ll win, no matter what the outcome.
Remember laughing? Laughter enhances the blood flow to the body’s extremities and improves cardiovascular function.
Laughter boosts the immune system and helps the body fight off disease, cancer cells as well as viral, bacterial and other infections.
Laughter releases endorphins and other natural mood-elevating and pain-killing chemicals, improves the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to internal organs.
Please live a healthy life – medicine is an imperfect science.
Oh, and as a parting shot, here’s a final quote by Patch Adams that seems fitting right now – this one goes out to anyone waiting in a long queue to have their vaccination.
Waiting in line is a great opportunity to meet people, daydream, or play.
Inspirational Quotes – Healthcare Workers from Lauren Kinghorn
