33 Quotes About Illness and Strength

Suffering from a devastating mental health breakdown can leave you feeling broken. Having the strength to accelerate to where you want to be is all the encouragement you need. These quotes about illness and strength will offer the inspiration you need to start a new path today.

“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.”

“Because doctors can’t name the illness, everyone—the patient’s family, friends, health insurance, and in many cases the patient—comes to think of the patient as not really sick and not really suffering.”

“Because truth and life are one, when you reject the Truth, you cut yourself off from the source of life.”

“Futility. Uselessness. Bloody entrophy. Death matters, at least sometimes.”

“Gratitude pours forth continually, as if the unexpected had just happened—the gratitude of a convalescent—for convalescence was unexpected.”

“Having a chronic illness, Molly thought, was like being invaded. Her grandmother back in Michigan used to tell about the day one of their cows got loose and wandered into the parlor, and the awful time they had getting her out. ”

“I am fighting to stay alive not because I fear death, but because I love life.”

“I came to realize we are held in the arms of God and are utterly completely safe – in life and in death; whether walking alone or with others.”

“I don’t need to write light, to see light. You are only disabled, if you disable yourself. I may have an illness, but I am not the illness. Truth is, despite what they may say, I’ll get out of this world alive. ”

“I have this one little life to live with, it’s not the plan I had in mind but I can accept its the calling of my soul. The irony in gaining freedom through the heartbreak of stillness.”

“I started to walk the day I was told I was dying of cancer. I believe walking has kept me alive. I live with a constant, pressing awareness of death.”

“I thank God every day for this life, and I want there to be more, though that’s not known. What is known is that I’m alive today, this minute. And that’s pretty much what we all have – this day, this moment.”

“I walk to rid myself of the terror of cancer, and to overcome the fear of it coming back. The fear may never completely fade, but actively engaging life – whatever that may involve – reminds me of the joy each day can bring.”

“I will be living with chronic pain for the rest of my life. I don’t have the mobility, energy or life options I used to have.”

“Illness especially, may be a blessed forerunner of the individual’s conversion. Not only does it prevent him from realizing his desires; it even reduces his capacity for sin, his opportunities for vice.”

“Life is a terminal illness.”

“Miraculously recover or die. That’s the extent of our cultural bandwidth for chronic illness.”

“Self-stigma can be just a big a problem as the negative attitudes of others.”

“She has fought many wars, most internal. The ones that you battle alone, for this, she is remarkable. She is a survivor.”

“Somewhere inside that hurting body, there is something better, something stronger, something real.”

“Surrender is an incredibly difficult topic in light of chronic illness, because loss is often continued and sustained.”

“That’s the point. This healthy-feeling time now just feels like a tease. Like I’m in this holding pattern, flying in smooth circles within sight of the airport, in super-comfortable first class.”

“The question is not how to get cured, but how to live.”

“This story is not about avoiding death, but living life.”

“To evade arrogance, remind yourself (from time to time) that your talent or success could have been better. To be thankful, remind yourself (every now and then) that your illness or failure could have been worse.”

“We all die. Not all of us live.”

“We do not engage in idle or intentional gossip which undermines someone else’s integrity or which spreads the seeds of fear by talking unthinkingly about illness, disasters, and all the other fears which run rampant in the world.”

“We have a genuine and devastating epidemic of opiate abuse in this country, and it is of critical importance that this problem be addressed.”

“Whatever made this world and everything in it isn’t wrong, it’s miraculous. Typos are wrong. That’s about it.”

“When a physical illness or other adverse circumstance arises, humans tend to add to the problem by worrying and increasing the mental anxiety in their situation.”

“Within that tired body, lies a soul so persistent in love, repentant in serving others before yourself. I see the person who can sympathize all layers of the human experience. I see you.”

“You have a responsibility to keep your homes, surroundings and city clean.”

“You spend a lot of time thinking about how awful the prison is rather than envisioning your future.”

Experiencing hopelessness can be one of the most devastating feelings in the world.