[For equal opportunity and recognition, women in science] must be prepared to work hard for the work’s sake, without thought of what it may bring to them in the way of personal acclaim and emolument. While scientific research is exciting it has its dull and plodding moments. One may delve and delve and analyze and analyze for months, and even years, without seeing anything. Then suddenly, through accumulative observation, the idea comes!”

Books are merely records of what other people have thought and observed, the material is a far safer guide.

I did it [worked long hours] because I wanted to, not because I had to. I loved it and still do love it, That is what women must have in addition to diligence—a real and absorbing devotion to their work. They need now to have a bigger body of work to show.

I hope my studies may be an encouragement to other women, especially to young women, to devote their lives to the larger interests of the mind. It matters little whether men or women have the more brains; all we women need to do to exert our proper influence is just to use all the brains we have.

I hope my studies may be an encouragement to other women, especially to young women, to devote their lives to the larger interests of the mind. It matters little whether men or women have the more brains; all we women need to do to exert our proper influence is just to use all the brains we have."

I shall esteem it a very great honor to have a degree from the institution that gave Elizabeth Blackwell her opportunity to study medicine.

I think, considering what they have had to fight against, that women have been wonderful. I see no end to their development in science, as in the arts and professions and in business, if they have the will to work.

My work has already received more publicity than it deserves. … If our recent studies had involved some spectacular discovery in which the public would really be interested, it would be quite a different matter,… Besides this point, I feel that the time has come when it is much more important to emphasize the work of some of the younger women in medicine.

Research lifts teaching to a high plane. No one can be a really great educator unless he himself is an investigator.

Since being in New York and working a little with the clinical group here, I have found that the younger and the abler women in clinical medicine do not want separate societies and separate organizations and I believe that the day is happily gone by when there is any advantage to women in such separation.

The investigator who holds back his conclusions until he is absolutely sure, never progresses far* When I reach certain conclusions, I do not hesitate to publish them, even though, after further study, I may find I was wrong; then I do not hesitate to say that I have changed my mind.

The rich can pay when they have to pay [for medical care]. The poor receive free treatment from skilled specialists and can go, when necessary, to hospitals free of charge. But between seventy-five and ninety per cent. of our population, that which constitutes our very backbone, find it difficult to be relieved from the intolerable burden of illness.

Thou, O God, dost sell unto us all good things at the price of labour.
Quotation credited to Leonardo da Vinci that she chose for her bookplate, and which reflects her outlook on her work.

When a problem begins to clear, so that the conclusions are evident and so that all the paths to the end are clear, then I lose interest in it and want to try something else.

I suppose that Dr. [Florence] Sabin is the most eminent of living women scientists. The knowledge she has derived from her studies has led to better understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the body in health and in disease, and has been not only of theoretical but of practical value. It is of the nature of conspicuous social service to have added to the knowledge of our bodies, well and ill, and thus to have helped make them better instruments for the fulfilment of the purposes of society as a whole.

A study of Dr. [Florence] Sabin’s work shows the greatness of her achievement and the character of her mind. She has dealt with the primary and fundamental problem of the cell—the unit of plant and animal life. All through her investigations she has followed the cell, seeking the secret of differentiations by newer and finer methods, both physical and chemical. Always through her work runs the great strong, continuous cord of cell differentiations. This is one of the great concepts of man, for all life begins as a single cell. I have known and followed Dr. Sabin’s work since her student days, and have lately been more closely associated with her in her tuberculosis studies. She is all in mind and spirit and ideals that man or woman ever accomplishes. She belongs to the great students of both sexes, for when these have the brains and the will to work I see little difference.

Dressed very plainly, usually with a plain brown skirt of tweed. No cosmetics. Neat but not ostentatious. After all, business was business. She [Florence Sabin] would lecture twice a week. Very rapidly spoken, a little muddy—she was so enthusiastic in trying to correlate the scientific and medical aspect of anatomy (histology). She would tear up her notes after each lecture so that she would have to work it over the next year.

When I think of Miss Sabin’s work in the Medical School it seems to me that she has been an ideal university professor. Successful in teaching, productive in research, conscientious and cooperative in all routine duties of an administrative character. Following the admonition of Pasteur she has chosen to dwell in the serene peace of the laboratory and library, and in this environment has given her time and best energies to the work belonging to her position.

I fancy that Dr. Sabin’s impulsive sincerity has helped greatly to open the way to the hearts of her pupils and friends.