Did Florence Nightingale say "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse"?

Q: Did Florence Nightingale say "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse"?

Yes. This one is genuine. Nightingale wrote it in an 1861 private letter to Miss H. Bonham Carter, first printed in Sir Edward Cook's The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913), vol. 1, p. 506. Her exact words, though, were "I never gave or took an excuse" — the widely shared "any excuse" is a later one-word drift, first documented around 2002 per Quote Investigator.

Who really said it

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse

Written by Florence Nightingale 1820–1910 · founder of modern nursing

Verified Free to reuse

This one is genuine. Nightingale wrote it in an 1861 private letter to Miss H. Bonham Carter, first printed in Sir Edward Cook’s The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913), vol. 1, p. 506. Her exact words, though, were “I never gave or took an excuse” — the widely shared “any excuse” is a later one-word drift, first documented around 2002 per Quote Investigator.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse” Florence Nightingale, 1861 letter (in Cook's The Life of Florence Nightingale, 1913). The popular "any excuse" is a later variant.

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Evoking the world of Florence Nightingale — English social reformer, statistician & founder of modern nursing. Theme: "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

The documented source

Published source: The Life of Florence Nightingale
Editor / date: Sir Edward Cook, 1913 (vol. 1, p. 506)
Original letter: To Miss H. Bonham Carter, 1861
Authentic wording: “I never gave or took an excuse”

I have had a larger responsibility of human lives than ever man or woman had before. And I attribute my success to this:—I never gave or took an excuse. Yes, I do see the difference now between me and other men. When a disaster happens, I act and they make excuses.

From the 1861 letter as printed in Cook’s biography. The only context for the “disaster” is Nightingale’s own line in the same passage — “When a disaster happens, I act and they make excuses” — and Quote Investigator traces the line’s textual chronology without recording any further detail about the incident behind it.

Quote Investigator: the earliest-attestation chronology

How we verified this

Quote Investigator traces the earliest instance to Nightingale’s 1861 letter, printed in Sir Edward Cook’s The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913), vol. 1, p. 506 — wording “an excuse.”
Wikiquote’s sourced section likewise cites the 1861 letter to Miss H. Bonham Carter and gives the wording as “an excuse.”
Per QI’s timeline, faithful reprints (Eton College Chronicle 1914; Bradford 1933) kept “an excuse”; the swapped “any excuse” surfaces only around 2002.

Public domain

The line comes from an 1861 letter and was first published in Sir Edward Cook’s biography in 1913. Both the letter and that first printing predate 1931, so the text is in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

The wording, not the author, is the problem

Unusually for a “famous name” quote, the attribution here is correct — Florence Nightingale really did write it. What’s been altered is a single word.

“I never gave or took any excuse” mis-worded

Nightingale’s 1861 letter, as printed in Cook’s 1913 biography, reads “I never gave or took an excuse.” Faithful early reprints kept “an”; the swap to “any” is first documented around 2002, per Quote Investigator.

Right author, near-right words: Nightingale wrote “an excuse” in an 1861 letter (Wikiquote, sourced); “any excuse” is a later one-word corruption.

Context

Why it stuck

Nightingale wrote the line in 1861, a few years after the Crimean War had made her a national figure. In the same passage she draws the contrast that gives the sentiment its bite: “When a disaster happens, I act and they make excuses.”

The quote spread widely only after Cook’s 1913 biography put the letter into print, and it has since become a staple of nursing and leadership motivation — usually in its slightly worn-down “any excuse” form.

When a disaster happens, I act and they make excuses.

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More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator — full investigationquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the quote to Nightingale's 1861 letter via Cook's 1913 biography and dates the 'any excuse' variant to c. 2002.

Florence Nightingale — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced section citing the 1861 letter to Miss H. Bonham Carter, with the original 'an excuse' wording.

Nightingale quotations (Dictionary of Science Quotations)todayinsci.com

Cites the quote to Cook's Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1, p. 506 (1913).

The Life of Florence Nightingale — Internet Archivearchive.org

Digitized copies of Cook's 1913 biography, the source volume containing the letter on p. 506.

Goodreads quote pagegoodreads.com

Popular circulation of the quote under Nightingale's name (shows both wordings in the wild).

The true author

About Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

1820–1910 · English social reformer, statistician & founder of modern nursing

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) rose to fame organising nursing care for British soldiers during the Crimean War, where her insistence on sanitation and record-keeping cut death rates dramatically. A pioneering statistician as well as a reformer, she founded the first scientifically based nursing school and reshaped hospital administration. The line about excuses comes from her private correspondence and reflects the relentless, accountability-driven temperament that defined her work.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Florence Nightingale to Miss H. Bonham Carter, 1861, quoted in Sir Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan, 1913), 506.

MLA (9th ed.)

Nightingale, Florence. Letter to H. Bonham Carter. 1861. Quoted in Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1, Macmillan, 1913, p. 506.

APA (7th ed.)

Nightingale, F. (1861). [Letter to H. Bonham Carter]. As cited in E. Cook (1913), The life of Florence Nightingale (Vol. 1, p. 506). Macmillan.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-attribute-my-success-to-this-i-never-gave-or-took-any