25 Elizabeth Blackwell Quotes From the First Woman Physician
Published May 24, 2023
These Elizabeth Blackwell quotes will inspire you to make a difference in your life after seeing how much she accomplished.
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England, in 1821 and died in Hastings, England 1910.
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Blackwell accomplished many things in her life, including becoming the first woman to receive a medical degree in America and being the first woman on the United Kingdom’s Medical Register of the General Medical Council.
She was a teacher who became a physician in Britain and America and played a big part as a social reformer and in promoting educating women in the medical field.
Blackwell first became interested in the medical field after seeing a sick female friend suffer more because no woman doctor cared for her.
This led Blackwell to apply to multiple medical schools.
Still, she was rejected each time until the Geneva Medical College in New York accepted her.
Read these Elizabeth Blackwell quotes briefly to learn more about this remarkable woman.
Best Elizabeth Blackwell Quotes
Here are some of the best Elizabeth Blackwell quotes!
1. “Health has its science, as well as disease.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
2. “None of us can know what we are capable of until we are tested.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
3. “Do not be fooled by the fine manners. At court, enemies hide in plain sight.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
4. “When life follows the course of our desires, it is easy to be swept along without thought.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
5. “Our school education ignores, in a thousand ways, the rules of healthy development.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
6. “If I were rich, I would not begin private practice, but would only experiment; as, however, I am poor, I have no choice.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
7. “Thanks be to Heaven, I am on land once more, and never do I wish again to experience that hideous nightmare — a voyage across the ocean.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
8. “Methods and conclusions formed by half the race only, must necessarily require revision as the other half of humanity rises into conscious responsibility.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
9. “The idea of winning a doctor’s degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
10. “The beauty of the tendons and exquisite arrangements of this part of the body struck my artistic sense and appealed to the sentiment of reverence with which this anatomical branch of study was ever afterwards invested in my mind.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
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Elizabeth Blackwell Quotes About Women and Their Rights
Enjoy these quotes about women and their rights.
11. “A blank wall of social and professional antagonism faces the woman.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
12. “If society will not admit of woman’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
13. “For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
14. “I do not wish to give (women) a first place, still less a second one- but the complete freedom to take their true place, whatever it may be.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
15. “To her [Florence Nightingale] chiefly I owed the awakening to the fact that sanitation is the supreme goal of medicine, its foundation and its crown.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
16. “The practice of the infirmary, both medical and surgical, was conducted entirely by women; but a board of consulting physicians, men of high standing in the profession, gave it the sanction of their names.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
17. “Medicine is so broad a field, so closely interwoven with general interests, dealing as it does with all ages, sexes, and classes, and yet of so personal a character in its individual appreciations, that it must be regarded as one of those great departments of work in which the cooperation of men and women is needed to fulfill all its requirements.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell Quotes to Inspire You
Inspirational Elizabeth Blackwell quotes!
18. “It’s not easy to be a pioneer — but oh, is it fascinating!” — Elizabeth Blackwell
19. “For evil thoughts take strength from the dark, while hope thrives in the light.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
20. “I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
21. “It is well worth the efforts of a lifetime to have attained knowledge which justifies an attack on the root of all evil.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
22. “I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
23. “[M]y hope rises when I find that the inner heart of a human being may remain pure, notwithstanding some corruption of the outer coverings.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
24. “Love, Hope, and Reverence are realities of a different order from the senses, but they are positive and constant facts, always active, always working out mighty changes in human life.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
25. “I am not the sort of person about whom stories are told. Those of humble birth suffer their heartbreaks and celebrate their triumphs unnoticed by the bards, leaving no trace in the fables of their time.” — Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell Medical Influence
Elizabeth Blackwell achieved many things, including starting an Infirmary for Women and Children in the United States and Britain.
She and her sister Emily also aided nursing efforts during the American Civil War.
Elizabeth Blackwell forged a path where women were accepted into the medical field and helped many patients in the process.
Please share these Elizabeth Blackwell quotes with your family and friends and post any comments about her in the comment section below.
