Cancer Quotes
(35+ quotes)
I created this cancer quote collection to help patients facing a cancer diagnosis. The path to survival is different for each of us. Often our nearest and dearest have no idea what to say or do.
Whether you are a cancer patient, survivor, or a friend or loved one – know that hope is always a possibility. The cancer quotes and positive thinking made a difference for me. Some days we just need inspiration to look at our situation through hopeful eyes. Dwelling on anything negative is toxic. After my diagnosis with a deadly form of AML in 2003, I avoided ‘woe is me’ and ‘doomsday’ conversations as much as possible.
No matter how long it has been since a doctor made the diagnosis, you are a survivor dealing with trauma. Cancer patients need ordinary conversation (funny stories, lots of laughter, and expressive art activities can also help), as much as flowers and cards. Consider making a card or poster for the hospital room featuring one of our empowering cancer quotes to remind the patient they are loved. Rather than staring at a blank wall, your dear one will have positive words inspiring them day after day.
Cancer affects us all to some extent. When someone we know gets cancer, our world stops for a moment. All thoughts and concerns move to the patient and the journey they are about to undertake. Don’t let your fear keep you away. Even a patient who does not want visitors appreciates when someone offer to help tend their garden, provide meals for family members at home, or other help with chores. If you are far away, share a meaningful poem, memory or cancer quote in a letter.
Want to know what NOT to say? Avoid any conversations which include: “How did you get this?” “What’s the prognosis?” “How long do they say you will live?” or “How could this happen to YOU?”
Believe it or not, all those words came out of the mouths of well-meaning friends who were reacting from the shock of hearing I had blood cancer. I often found myself comforting them in our phone conversations. Avoid this. Just reading over the cancer quotes here will give you an idea of what is ‘ok’ to say. The patient needs every bit of his or her strength to fight the invasion going on in their body.
If all else fails, the words every cancer patient benefits from hearing: “I love you. I’m here for you. Together we will beat this thing. You are one-in-a-million. None of the statistics matter. What does matter is getting you on the road to recovery as soon as possible.” My prayers are with you on this journey.
Your personal joy, inspiration and creativity coach,
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Felicia Hemans Tweet this Quote!
Love and laughter are two of the most important universal cancer treatments on the planet. Overdose on them.
Tanya Masse
If you are utterly close to someone battling cancer, there is one sure thing you can say to make them feel even a shred of a whiff of a modicum of better: “I will be here for you in any way you need, in any way I can.”
Dan Duffy
More than 10 million Americans are living with cancer, and they demonstrate the ever-increasing possibility of living beyond cancer.
Sheryl Crow
Cancer did not bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet.
Michael Douglas Tweet this Quote!
The worst thing in your life may contain the seeds of the best.
Joe Kogel Tweet this Quote!
It’s about focusing on the fight and not the fright.
Robin Roberts Tweet this Quote!
Cancer changes your life, often for the better. You learn what’s important, you learn to prioritize, and you learn not to waste your time. You tell people you love them.
Joe Siegel
Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.
Jim Valvano
During chemo, you're more tired than you've ever been. It's like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you're out. But you also find that you're stronger than you've ever been. You're clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now it's instantaneous.
Melissa Bank
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
Winston Churchill Tweet this Quote!
Cancer is a journey, but you walk the road alone. There are many places to stop along the way and get nourishment – you just have to be willing to take it.
Emily Hollenberg
Getting cancer can become the beginning of living. The search for one's own being, the discovery of the life one needs to live, can be one of the strongest weapons against disease.
Lawrence Leshan
You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
Cayla Mills Tweet this Quote!
My cancer scare changed my life. I'm grateful for every new, healthy day I have. It has helped me prioritize my life.
Olivia Newton-John
You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It's a mindset.
Dave Pelzer Tweet this Quote!
What cancer does is, it forces you to focus, to prioritize, and you learn what's important. I mean, I don't sweat the small stuff. I used to get angry at cab drivers. It's not worth it.... And when somebody says you have cancer, you realize it's all small stuff.
Joel Siegel
Cancer is not a death sentence, but rather it is a life sentence; it pushes one to live.
Marcia Smith Tweet this Quote!
Cancer has changed, and so have I. Life goes on, even becomes normal again. I refused to let cancer wreck my party. There are just too many cool things to do and plan and live for.
Kris Carr
Being diagnosed with cancer really opened my eyes to the fact anyone can have it and that even though we think we have control over everything in our lives, we don't.
Sheryl Crow
Let's face it, life is a constant challenge. It's full of unexpected detours that no one but you can navigate.
Sheryl Crow
I take nothing for granted. I now have only good days, or great days.
Lance Armstrong Tweet this Quote!
If children with terminal cancer can find love, joy, beauty and peace in their day – and they do – why don't we?
Dan Zadra
A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.
Patricia Neal Tweet this Quote!
Deep unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.
George Eliot
If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell.
Lance Armstrong
Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.
Joseph Campbell
Cancer is a word, not a sentence.
John Diamond Tweet this Quote!
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts – it’s what you do with what you have left.
Hubert Humphrey
Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope; and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
John F. Kennedy
The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.
C. C. Scott Tweet this Quote!
One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.
Merle Shain Tweet this Quote!
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
Voltaire Tweet this Quote!
At every crisis in one's life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.
Woodrow Wilson
The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
Helen Keller
The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.
Dalai Lama
The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill, in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery.
Allen Klein
The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one minute to the next.
Mignon McLaughlin Tweet this Quote!
What seems to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
Oscar Wilde Tweet this Quote!
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