Healthcare workers are our heroes. Throughout the ages, and especially through the pandemic, they’ve stayed on the frontlines tending to the sick and managing unprecedented levels of stress and grief. We salute these essential workers who put others’ health above their own.
From Hippocrates to Keith Richards, the following people share their wisdom and humor in the healthcare field.
On the mission of healthcare workers
Hippocrates, ancient Greek physician: “Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.”
Paracelsus, a Swiss scientist: Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.”
Mahatma Gandhi: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service to others.”
Maya Angelou, poet and author: “They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Lewis Carol, author: “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.”
On why they do the work
Clara Barton, nurse and founder of American Red Cross: “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.”
Ewa Kopacz, Polish politician: “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.”
Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: “I think health care is more about love than about 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.”
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.”
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.”
Danielle Ofri, physician: “The awe of discovering the human body. The honor of being trusted to give advice. The gratitude for helping someone through a difficult illness. These things never grow old.”
On the human body
Martha Graham, dancer and choreographer: “The body is a sacred garment.”
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.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet: “The first wealth is health.”
Henry David Thoreau, poet and philosopher: “I stand in awe of my body.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk: “Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos – the trees, the clouds, everything.”
Marie Curie, Nobel Prize‑winning chemist: “I am among those who think that science has great beauty.”
On crediting healthcare workers
Stephen Ambrose, American historian: “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.”
George Michael, singer: “Nurses, doctors, teachers: these are the people who deserve the credit these days.”
Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General: “Our health care workers are the heroes of the Covid-19 response.”
Rawsi Williams, nurse: “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.”
Joseph Campbell, scholar and author: “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and politician: “Teachers and nurses get the best seats in heaven.”
On striving to do better
Helen Keller, author: “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.”
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.”
Anne Frank, author of Diary of Anne Frank: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment to improve the world.”
Nelson Mandela, political leader: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
Dolly Parton, singer/songwriter: “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
And a bit of humor
Abe Lemons, American coach: “You know what they call the fellow who finishes last in his medical school graduating class? They call him 'Doctor.'”
Keith Richards, guitarist, Rolling Stones: “I mean some doctor told me I had six months to live and I went to their funeral.”
Communication is the key to healthcare. Healthcare workers need secure communications equipment to be safe and effective on the job.
