Although its growth may seem to have been slow, it is to be remembered that it is not a shrub, or plant, to shoot up in the summerand wither in the frosts. The Red Cross is a part of us--it has come to stay--and like the sturdy oak, its spreading branches shall yet encompass and shelter the relief of the nation.

Clara Barton

Categorized in : Growth Frost Relief

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 needs thinking

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

nursing military war

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

nursing luxury nurse

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

Clara Barton

nursing swings doors

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

nursing success past

The Red Cross in its nature, it aims and purposes, and consequently, its methods, is unlike any other organization in the country.It is an organization of physical action, of instantaneous action, at the spur of the moment; it cannot await the ordinary deliberation of organized bodies if it would be of use to suffering humanity,[ellipsis in original] it has by its nature a field of its own.

Clara Barton

organization humanity country

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

may pay men

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

rain heart war

Offering a hand up is not a hand-out.

Clara Barton

hands-up offering hands

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 soldier waiting

Everybody's business is nobody's business, and nobody's business is my business.

Clara Barton

american-red-cross unique inspirational

While soldiers can stand and fight.I can fight and feed them

Clara Barton

i-can fighting soldier

I have never worked for fame or praise, and shall not feel their loss as I otherwise would. I have never for a moment lost sight of the humble life I was born to, its small environments, and the consequently little right I had to expect much of myself, and shall have the less to censure, or upbraid myself with for the failures I must see myself make.

Clara Barton

failure humility humble

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

weather two years

The surest test of discipline is its absence.

Clara Barton

discipline tests teaching

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

war country father

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 body done

The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.

Clara Barton

patriotism father blood

I founded the American Red Cross.

Clara Barton

american-red-cross red crosses

If woman alone had suffered under these mistaken traditions [of women's subordination], if she could have borne the evil by herself, it would have been less pitiful, but her brother man, in the laws he created and ignorantly worshipped, has suffered with her. He has lost her highest help; he has crippled the intelligence he needed; he has belittled the very source of his own being and dwarfed the image of his Maker.

Clara Barton

brother law men