I Founded The American Red Cross.

Others Are Writing My Biography, And Let It Rest As They Elect To Make It. I Have Lived My Life, Well And Ill, Always Less Well Than I Wanted It To Be But It Is, As It Is, And As It Has Been; So Small A Thing, To Have Had So Much About It!

My Business Is Stanching Blood And Feeding Fainting Men; My Post The Open Field Between The Bullet And The Hospital. I Sometimes Discuss The Application Of A Compress Or A Wisp Of Hay Under A Broken Limb, But Not The Bearing And Merits Of A Political Movement. I Make Gruel--not Speeches; I Write Letters Home For Wounded Soldiers, Not Political Addresses.

I Founded The American Red Cross.

Let Me Go, Let Me Go.

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.