I May Be Compelled To Face Danger,

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.

What Armies And How Much Of War I Have Seen, What Thousands Of Marching Troops, What Fields Of Slain, What Prisons, What Hospitals, What Ruins, What Cities In Ashes, What Hunger And Nakedness, What Orphanages, What Widowhood, What Wrongs And What Vengeance.

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.

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.

My Business Is Staunching Blood, And Feeding Fainting Men.