If You're Living With A Chronic Illness, These 104 Quotes Will Resonate—And Help You Feel A Little Stronger

It’s hard to understand what it’s like to live with chronic illness unless you’ve been there. The pain of depression. The loneliness of dementia. The fight of those living with arthritis, MS and cancer. To be frank, it’s a lot—but there are things you can do to feel just a little bit better.

Here are 104 chronic illness quotes to uplift, encourage and inspire you, even on your darkest days.

104 Chronic Illness Quotes

1. “If you stumble, make it part of the dance.” — Unknown

2. “Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.” — Unknown

3. “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

4. "Every couple of years now, a doctor says I’m sick / Pulls out a brand-new bag of tricks / And then they lay it on me / And at first, it was my brain, then a skeleton in pain." — Halsey

5. “Resting is not laziness, it’s medicine!” — Glenn Schweitzer

6. “Never let the things you cannot do prevent you from doing the things you can.” — John Wooden

7. "People need to be more compassionate. Chronic pain is no joke. And it’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel." — Lady Gaga

8. "Acceptance? No. I’m never going to accept this. I’m pissed." — Christina Applegate

9. “The grass is greener where you water it.” — Neil Barringham

10. “Talking about our problems is our greatest addiction. Break the habit. Talk about your joys.” — Rita Schiano

Related: 50 Chronic Pain Quotes For When You Need Motivation, Empathy and Understanding 

11. “Sometimes you will be in control of your illness and other times you’ll sink into despair, and that’s OK! Freak out, forgive yourself, and try again tomorrow.” — Kelly Hemingway

12. “Behind every chronic illness is just a person trying to find their way in the world. We want to find love and be loved and be happy just like you. We want to be successful and do something that matters. We’re just dealing with unwanted limitations in our hero’s journey.” — Glenn Schweitzer

13. “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip toe if you must, but take a step.” — Naeem Callaway

14. “You are strong when you know your weaknesses. You are beautiful when you appreciate your flaws. You are wise when you learn from your mistakes.” — Unknown

15. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

16. “Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.” — A. A. Milne

17. “The truth is we’re all a little bit broken. We must learn to love the broken pieces of ourselves—be gentle and empathetic with ourselves and others.” — Karen Salmansohn

18. “It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself and to make your happiness a priority.” — Mandy Hale

19. “Live to inspire and one day people will say, because of you, I didn’t give up” — Unknown

Related: Inspirational Health Quotes to Motivate You

20. “Some days are better, some days are worse. Look for the blessing instead of the curse. Be positive, stay strong and get enough rest. You can’t do it all, but you can do your best.” — Doe Zantamata

21. “If opening your eyes, or getting out of bed, or holding a spoon, or combing your hair is the daunting Mount Everest you climb today, that is okay.” — Carmen Ambrosio

22. “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” —Vince Lombardi

23. “She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.” — Ariana Dancu

24. “The strongest people I’ve met have not been given an easier life. They’ve learned to create strength and happiness from dark places.” —Kristen Butler

25. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” — Francis of Assisi

Related: Selma Blair Talks About Battling MS

26. “I long to accomplish a noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” — Helen Keller

27. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to just try one more time.” — Thomas Edison

28. “Maybe life isn’t about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it’s about collecting the scars to prove that we showed up for it.” — Hannah Brencher

29. “Nothing is more beautiful than a real smile that has struggled through tears.” — Unknown

30. “One cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” — Carl Jung

31. “Maybe it’s not always about trying to fix something that is broken. Maybe it’s about starting over and creating something better.” — Unknown

32. “We are stronger in the places we have been broken.” — Ernest Hemingway

33. “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” — Napoleon Hill

34. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” —  Dale Carnegie

35. “You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” — Timber Hawkeye

36. “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside of you that is greater than any obstacle.” — Christian D. Larson

37. “I fight for my health every day in ways that most people don’t understand. I’m not lazy. I’m a warrior!” — Unknown

38. “Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.” — Mary Anne Radmacher

Related: 125 Quotes About Heart Disease

39. “We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.” — Oscar Romero

40. “At any given moment, you have the power to say, 'This is not how my story is going to end.'” — Unknown

41. “When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is hope. Once we choose hope, everything is possible.” —Christopher Reeve

42. “You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can and be one of the exceptions.” — Steve Case

43. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” — Marianne Williamson

44. “The truth that many people never understand is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt.” — Thomas Merton

45. “Consider the redwood tree. When only a stump remains, the tree can nevertheless regenerate. Little sprouts shoot up from the buds of ancient, invisible roots and actually form a circle surrounding the old stump. This is a “cathedral circle,” and the survival of some of the buds guarantees that the redwoods do not die.” — Anthony Gittins

46. “Hope doesn’t require a massive chain where heavy links of logic hold it together. A thin wire will do, just strong enough to get us through the night until the winds die down.” — Charles R. Swindoll

47. “Look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” — Jacob A. Riis

48. “Normality is a paved road. It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” — Vincent Van Gogh

49. “Regret for the things we have done will be tempered by time. It is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” — Sydney J. Harris

50. “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don’t give up.” —Anne Lamott

Related: How Kristin Chenoweth Manages Her Chronic Pain

51. “A good half of the art of living is resilience." — Alain de Botton

52. “I can’t tell you when, but I can promise you it will get better, it will get easier, and it will all be worthwhile. Just promise me you won’t ever give up.” — Unknown

53. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie

54. “The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle – the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.” — Douglas MacArthur

55. “There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep and still be counted as warriors.” — Adrienne Rich

56. “The world is more magical, less predictable, more autonomous, less controllable, more varied, less simple, more infinite, less knowable, more wonderfully troubling than we could have imagined being able to tolerate when we were young.” — James Hollis

57. “The reason why people give up so fast is because they tend to look at how far they still have to go, instead of how far they have gotten.” — Unknown

58. “You wake up every morning to fight the same demons that left you so tired the night before and that, my love, is bravery.” — Unknown

59. “Do not believe the things you tell yourself when you’re sad and alone.” — Unknown

60. “The strongest people I’ve met have not been given an easier life. They’ve learned to create strength and happiness from dark places.” — Kristen Butler

61. “Please be patient with me. Sometimes when I’m quiet, it’s because I need to figure myself out. It’s not because I don’t want to talk. Sometimes there are no words for my thoughts.” — Kamla Bola?os

62. “What would the hero of your life’s movie do right now? Do that!” — Joe Rogan

63. “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” —Confucius

64. “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” —George S. Patton

65. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” ―Maya Angelou

66. “Courage conquers all things: it even gives strength to the body.” — Ovid

67. “Do not spend your precious energy worrying about how others view your medical condition.” — Toni Bernhard

68. “Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.” — Henry Rollins

69. “Even if you shake, a step is still a step. Continue to be brave enough to walk your path.” — The Better Man Project

70. “You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other and you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. Then you go about the business of living. That’s how I’ve done it. There’s no other way.” — Elizabeth Taylor

71. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” — Kahlil Gibran

Related: 101 Fitness Motivation Quotes

72. “We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” — Carlos Castaneda

73. “Everything is going to be alright. Maybe not today, but eventually.” — Unknown

74. “When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.” — Pittacus Lore

75. “Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.” — Tori Amos

76. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” — Richard Bach

77. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” —Margaret Thatcher

78. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” —Robert Frost

79. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” ―Winston Churchill

80. “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” ― Thích Nh?t H?nh

81. “It is not length of life, but depth of life that matters.“ ―Ralph Waldo Emerson

82. “Courage is grace under pressure.” ― Ernest Hemingway

Related: 50 Mindfulness Quotes To Inspire and Ground You

83. “You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human.” — Lori Deschene

84. “If you are broken, you do not have to stay broken.” — Selena Gomez

85. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” — John Green

86. “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.” —Oprah Winfrey

87. “When ‘i’ is replaced by ‘we’ illness becomes wellness.” — Unknown

88. “Just keep swimming.” Dory, Finding Nemo

89. “Your illness doesn’t define you. Strength and courage does.” — Unknown

90. “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” — Anne Frank

91. “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.” — Theodore Roosevelt

92. “She was powerful not because she wasn’t scared but because she went on so strongly, despite the fear.” — Atticus

93. “One of the happiest moments in life may be when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.” — Unknown

94. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” — John Lennon

95. “You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.” — Unknown

96. "I don't like to victimize myself. I don't like other people to victimize me." — Sarah Hyland

97. “When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder if not impossible to lose.” —Sarah Dessen

98. “Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.” — Marilyn Monroe

99. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” —Alice Walker

100. “My strength does not come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself when I was knocked down.” —Bob Moore

101. “She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.” — Ariana Dancu

102. “It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself and to make your happiness a priority.” — Mandy Hale

103. "I cried. I had tears. They weren't tears of panic — they were tears of knowing I now had to give in to a body that had loss of control." — Selma Blair

104. “My path may be different, but I am not lost.” — Unknown

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