But sometimes, it can be difficult to think of the right thing to say to a person who is battling cancer. What messages can be calming and reassuring to share with them? What phrases are appropriate to say when they are facing what is likely the biggest hurdle of their life? Here, we’ve compiled a list of 101 inspirational cancer quotes for you to share with the cancer-fighter in your life, or to perhaps help you keep an optimistic outlook if you yourself are facing a battle with cancer. So whether you are the fierce warrior or the silent soldier standing behind in support, we hope you find a few messages from this list of uplifting quotes for cancer patients.
101 Inspirational Cancer Quotes
- “You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It’s a mindset.” — Dave Pelzer
- “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
- “Cancer cannot cripple love, it cannot shatter hope, it cannot conquer the spirit.” — Unknown
- “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.” — Samuel Smiles
- “Feed your faith, and your fears will starve to death.” — Unknown
- “When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under pressure.” — Peter Marshall
- “The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.” — C.C. Scott
- “Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today, let us begin.” — Mother Teresa
- “One day at a time, one step at a time. Do what you can, do your best. Let God handle the rest.” — Michelle Jones
- “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” — Psalm 46:1
- “Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth.” — Susan Taylor 12 “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” — Christopher Reeve
- “Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing; God never changes. Patience obtains all things. He who possesses God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.” — St. Teresa of Avila
- “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” — Vivian Greene
- “Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” — Unknown
- “God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, or sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.” — Unknown
- “Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.” — Ruth Ann Schabacker
- “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it today.” — Peter Kuzmic
- “Believe you can, and you are halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.” — William Frederick Halsey, Jr.
- “No matter what the statistics say, there is always a way.” — Bernie Siegel
- “I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.” — Rumi
- “Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.” — Sonia Ricotti
- “Stand in your light and shine brightly because that is how you defeat darkness.” — Leslie Esperanza Espaillat
- “Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.” ― Susan Statham
- “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” — Chuang Tzu
- “Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.” —Emory Austin
- “Cancer is a word, not a sentence.” — John Diamond
- “For every mountain, there is a miracle.” — Robert H. Schuller
- “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” — Isaiah 43:2
- “Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet.” — Michael Douglas
- “It’s about focusing on the fight and not the fright.” — Robin Roberts
- “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
- “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” — Kenji Miyazawa
- “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.” — Thomas S. Monson
- “When you die, that does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live.” — Stuart Scott
- “Cancer can touch you, but not your soul; neither your thoughts nor your heart.” — Vikrmn, Guru with Guitar
- “Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than you’ve ever been, to stand up taller than you ever were.” — Unknown
- “Cancer is the be-all and end-all of the sport, and the only thing you can do is show up to the game with your jersey on.” — Colleen Hoover, November 9
- “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and twice as beautiful as you’d ever imagined.” — A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
- “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
- “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” — Buddha
- “Faith is daring to go beyond what the eyes can see.” — Unknown
- “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.’” — Mary Anne Radmacher
- “When you see an obstacle approaching, grab your courage and speed up.” — Angela Lynne Craig, Pivot Leadership: Small Steps… Big Change
- “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” — Winston Churchill
- “Hope is the physician of each misery.” — Irish proverb
- “When it rains look for rainbows, when it’s dark look for stars.” — Oscar Wilde
- “Love and laughter are two of the most important universal cancer treatments on the planet. Overdose on them.” — Tanya Masse
- “Time is shortening. But every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me.” — Ingrid Bergman
- “The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart.” — Nikolai Lenin
- “Cancer opens many doors. One of the most important is your heart.” – Greg Anderson
- “Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” — Sarah Williams, Twilight Hours: A Legacy of Verse
- “Without hair, a queen is still a queen.” ― Prajakta Mhadnak
- “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali
- “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
- “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, ‘I’m possible!’” — Audrey Hepburn
- “We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up or fight like hell.” — Lance Armstrong
- “Remember how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go. You may not be where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be.” — Rick Warren
- “Cancer is not a death sentence, but rather it is a life sentence; it pushes one to live.” — Marcia Smith
- “Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “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
- “Hope is living with courage and confidence, not fear.” — Penny Boldrey
- “Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here, we should dance.” — Unknown
- “Don’t let pain define you. Let it refine you.” — Tim Fargo
- “At any given moment you have the power to say this is not how the story is going to end.” — Unknown
- “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” — Katherine Paterson
- “Faith doesn’t always mean that God changes your situation, sometimes it means he changes you.” — Steven Furtick
- “Cancer is only going to be a chapter in your life, not the whole story” — Joe Wasser
- “I have cancer. Cancer doesn’t have me.” — Marco Calderon
- “Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amidst joy.” — Felicia Hemans
- “Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow.” — Helen Keller
- “Difficult roads can lead to beautiful destinations.” — Kia Wynn
- “Acceptance of death and cancer did not mean I intended to give up, just the opposite. I was prepared to fight cancer not out of fear of dying, but out of joy of living.” — Edie Littlefield Sundby, The Mission Walker
- “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” — Maya Angelou
- “Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” — Misty Copeland
- “Cancer is messy and scary. You throw everything at it, but don’t forget to throw love at it. It turns out that might be the best weapon of all.” — Regina Brett
- “For every wound, there is a scar, and every scar tells a story. A story that says, ‘I survived!’” — Fr. Craig Scott
- “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t.” — Thomas Edison
- “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.” — G. K. Chesterton
- “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” — Cayla Mills
- “Take one day at a time. Today, after all, is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” — Billy Graham
- “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” — Scott Hamilton
- “Above all, cancer is a spiritual practice that teaches me about faith and resilience.” — Kris Carr
- “Cancer may have started the fight, but I will finish it.” — gotCancer.org
- “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” — Ambrose Redmoon
- “You need to spend time crawling alone through shadows to truly appreciate what it is to stand in the sun.” — Shaun Hick
- “Today we fight. Tomorrow we fight. The day after, we fight. And if this disease plans on whipping us, it better bring a lunch, ’cause it’s gonna have a long day doing it.” — Jim Beaver, Life’s That Way
- “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “All we’ve got is hope, and we hang on to that every single day.” — Caleb Scott
- “You have to fight, because if you don’t, you let the opponent win. And if your opponent is cancer, the results can be deadly.” — Lawrence Wray
- “I’m a tough cookie. Except for the cancer, I’m fine.” — Lisa Scottoline, Every Fifteen Minutes
- “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt.
- “To the question of your life, you are the only answer. To the problems of your life, you are the only solution.” — Jo Coudert
- “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
- “If fear is cultivated it will become stronger, if faith is cultivated it will achieve mastery.” — John Paul Jones
- “It’s not the load that breaks you down: it’s the way you carry it.” — Lena Horne
- “You have been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.” — Unknown Want more inspiring quotes? Check out these: 101 Uplifting Quotes About Confidence101 Quotes To Let Your Bestie Know How Much They Mean To You125 Women Empowerment Quotes40 Inspiring Mental Health Quotes
