These Breast Cancer Quotes Can Comfort Patients, Survivors, and Loved Ones

I was eight years old when my maternal grandmother’s breast cancer returned. It was aggressive but I wasn’t scared—until I saw her in the hospital for the first time. Her lush grey hair had fallen out, she had tubes in her arms. It seemed like she was hooked up to at least 20 machines. She was so happy to see me, yet all I could do was cry. Conversations about breast cancer are so often characterized by strength, survival, and fighting. Truth is, we all cope differently and that’s OK. Optimism is necessary, but it leaves little room for vulnerability. Nobody is strong 100% of the time. And as Nelson Mandela said, “Courage is not the absence of fear.” Although breast cancer is regrettably common, that doesn’t make it feel any less isolating. So, we compiled 25 quotes to affirm you during those inevitable moments of doubt.

“We have all been thrown down so low that nobody thought we'd ever get up again; but we have been long enough trodden now; we will come up again, and now I am here.” —Sojourner Truth

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“I do not wish my anger and pain and fear about cancer to fossilize into yet another silence, nor to rob me of whatever strength can lie at the core of this experience, openly acknowledged and examined...imposed silence about any area of our lives is a tool for separation and powerlessness.” —Audre Lorde

“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” —Ralph Ellison

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“The function of freedom is to free someone else.” —Toni Morrison

“My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.” —Audre Lorde

“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” —Maya Angelou

“Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.” —Anne Frank

“You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself.” —Diana Ross

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

"Age is no barrier. It's a limitation you put on your mind." —Jackie Joyner-Kersee

“The river is constantly turning and bending and you never know where it's going to go and where you'll wind up. Following the bend in the river and staying on your own path means that you are on the right track. Don't let anyone deter you from that." —Eartha Kitt

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” —Angela Davis

“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.” —bell hooks

“Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.” —Ralph Ellison

“Revolution is about change, and the first place the change begins is in yourself.” —Assatta Shakur

“Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch what makes you go beyond the norm.” —Cicely Tyson

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.” —Octavia Butler

“Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you never can tell just how close you are, it may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit. It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.” —John Greenleaf Whittier

“The triumph can’t be had without the struggle.” —Wilma Rudolph

“I believe in the impossible because no one else does.” —Flo Jo

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” —James Baldwin

“No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.” —Lupita Nyong’o

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” —Harriet Tubman

“If you haven't confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.” —Marcus Garvey

“Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.” —Mae Jemison