70 Positive Cancer Quotes That Will Bud Hope in Your Heart

Cancer is a worldwide known killer that breaks families apart, causes too many struggles and in some cases, the reason for a lifetime of heartache. There’s still no known cure for cancer but there are treatments that can control the cancer cells.

However, there are two things that can help you fight cancer better than any medical treatment ─ faith and a positive attitude. The word “impossible” can be replaced with “miracle” if you have these two important things. So, to stop your negative feeling of giving up on life, consider these positive cancer quotes that will bud hope in your heart and help you win this fight.

70 Positive Cancer Quotes

1. “One must not forget that recovery is brought about not by the physician, but by the sick man himself. He heals himself, by his own power, exactly as he walks by means of his own power, or eats, or thinks, breathes or sleeps.” ─ Georg Groddeck

2. “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” ─ Katherine Paterson

3. “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” ─ Kenji Miyazawa

4. “Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight.” ─ Unknown

5. “The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” ─ Mignon McLaughlin

6. “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” ─ Unknown

7. “As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.” ─ Emmanuel

8. “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. You don’t know how you’ll answer the door when your groceries are delivered. But you also find that you’re stronger than you’ve ever been. You’re clear. Your mortality is at an 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

9. “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

10. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at a time of challenge and controversy.” ─ Martin Luther King

11. “When you come to the end of your rope tie a knot and hang on.” ─ Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ─ Albert Einstein

13. “If HE brings you to it, He will bring you through it.” ─ Unknown

14. “At any given moment you have the power to say this is NOT how the story is going to end.” ─ Unknown

15. “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

16. “You don’t always have to hold yourself together.” ─ II Corinthians

17. “You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life.” ─ Unknown

18. “What Cancer Cannot Do: Cancer is so limited… It cannot cripple LOVE – It cannot shatter HOPE – It cannot corrode FAITH – It cannot destroy PEACE – It cannot kill FRIENDSHIP – It cannot suppress MEMORIES – It cannot silence COURAGE – It cannot invade the SOUL – It cannot steal eternal LIFE – It cannot conquer the SPIRIT.” ─ Unknown

19. “Cancer may have started the fight, but I will finish it.” ─ Unknown

20. “The important thing is not how many years in your life but how much life in your years.” ─ Edward J. Stieglitz

21. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” ─ Unknown

22. “Sometimes you have to go through things and not around them.” ─ Anonymous

23. “Now I’ve thought of another: Never give up. Never surrender.” ─ Jason Nesmith

24. “Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe to be. Being alive is the meaning.” ─ Joseph Campbell

25. “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” ─ Muhammad Ali

26. “Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.” ─ Alex Karras

27. “We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails.” ─ Unknown

28. “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” ─ Harriet

29. “I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” ─ Seuss

30. “Cancer is that awful word we all fear when we go to the doctor for a physical exam. But in that brief dark moment we hear it, the world we live in and the people we share it with begin to illuminate things we did not even pay attention to.” ─ BD Phillips

31. “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” ─ Cayla Mills

32. “Time is shortening. But everyday that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me.” ─ Ingrid Bergman

33. “Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway.” ─ Mary C. Crowley

34. “Cancer is a word, not a sentence.” ─ John Diamon

35. “Your illness does not define you. Your strength and courage does.” ─ Unknown

36. “I am here today, and today I would rather smile than cry.” ─ Catherine Brunelle

37. “So live. Fight like hell, and when you get too tired to fight, lay down and rest and let someone else fight for you.” ─ Stuart Scott

38. “Cancer is only going to be a chapter in my life and not the whole story.” ─ Joe Wasser

39. “At the end of the day, all you need is hope and strength. Hope that it will get better and strength to hold until it does.” ─ Hermin

40. “My advice is to remember that only you can fight your cancer. Other people can do the laundry, make meals, and even wipe away tears. You must ─ even if it’s the first time in your life ─ think of yourself first. No one can fight this battle well as you can.” ─ Deborah, breast cancer survivor

41. “It’s been hard, darling. You might not want to go through another year like this one. But it’s made you stronger. It’s cracked open spaces in you that will yield the brightest colors in grey days to come. Your broken pieces are mending and they have left you soft, in touch with your deeper sounds, with what you really want from this sacred ride through life. Make peace with it all. The truths, the heartbreak, the exhales, the glimmers of light, the dances and the music, sinking deeper into your skin. Make peace and make passage. There are many beautiful moments to come for all that you have sown in your bravery.” ─ Unknown

42. “We decide the first day of our cancer diagnosis whether we are going to be victims or survivors. We decide to muster up all our strength to fight to win. We decide to stay positive and not let cancer define us. We decide how we are going to handle each day. Yes, there are good days and bad days, but our attitude determines each day. Hold on to your hopes, dreams, faith, and determinations and gather strength from your support systems, because in the fight against cancer, we cannot give up.” ─ Ann, Lymphoma Survivor and Founder of lymphomaclub.com

43. “I know you are tired. I know you are physically and emotionally drained. But you have to keep going.” ─ Unknown

44. “To that one soul reading this: I know you’re tired. You’re fed up. You’re so close to breaking but there’s strength within you even when you feel weak. Keep fighting.” ─ Anonymous

45. “Cancer changes people. It sculpts us into someone who understands more deeply hurts more often, appreciates more quickly, cries more easily, hopes more desperately, loves more openly and lives more passionately.” ─ Unknown

46. “Be strong and courageous… It is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” ─ Deuteronomy 31:6

47. “Cancer is not a death sentence, but rather it is a life sentence; it pushes one to live.” ─ Marcia Smith

48. “I look at my cancer journey as a gift: It made me slow down and realize the important things in life and taught me not to sweat the small stuff.” ─ Olivia Newton-John

49. “You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” ─ Josh Shipp

50. “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” ─ John Wayne

51. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” ─ Babe Ruth

52. “The pain that you’ve been feeling, can’t compare to the joy that’s coming.” ─ Romans 8:18

53. “I don’t know how my story will end, but nowhere in my text will it ever read… ‘I gave up!’” ─ Unknown

54. “Life’s not about how hard of a hit you can give… it’s about how many you can take, and still keep moving forward.” ─ Sylvester Stallone, Rocky

55. “Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” ─ Anonymous

56. “Be strong and let your heart take courage.” ─ Psalm 31:24

57. “Everyday my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That’s our job as humans.” ─ Edie Falco

58. “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.” ─ Unknown

59. “I have cancer. Cancer doesn’t have me.” ─ Marco Calderon

60. “Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” ─ Anonymous

61. “Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” ─ Oprah

62. “You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It’s a mindset.” ─ Dave Pelzer

63. “Whatever you do, hold on to hope. The tiniest thread will twist into an unbreakable cord. Let hope anchor you in the possibility that this is not the end of your story, that change will bring you to peaceful shores.” ─ Unknown

64. “No matter what the statistics say, there is always a way.” ─ Bemie Siegel

65. “For every mountain there is a miracle.” ─ Robert H. Schuller

66. “It’s about focusing on the fight and not the fright.” ─ Robin Roberts

67. “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future or anticipate troubles but to live in the present.” ─ Buddha

68. “The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart.” ─ Nikolai Lenin

69. “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

70. “While there’s life, there’s hope.” ─ Cicero

Conclusion

The bottom line is that if you give up then you’ve already lost.

Cancer is just a disease, a hard challenge in your life. If you learn to fight it head-on then even if you lose or win, there’s nothing you’ll regret in this life. For those who are suffering from cancer, I salute your bravery.