Inspiring Breast Cancer Quotes: A Collection of Hope and Strength

"I plan on...encouraging so many women who are out there, who are still in the thick of it, who have yet to fight this fight, that you can do it, you can get through this one step at a time."

- Amy Robach

"Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees; it brought me to my feet."

- Michael Douglas

"I laughed more in the hospital than I ever have in my life, making fun of all the weird things that were happening to me. My friends would walk in with this sad look, and I would throw something at them and say, ‘Come on! This isn’t the end of the world!'"

- Christina Applegate

"When it comes to breast cancer you’re not alone, and scary though it is, there's a network of amazing women to help you through it."

- Judy Blume

"When you get diagnosed with cancer, there’s such a sense of loneliness, but what we need to know as people going through this is that you’re not alone."

- Christina Applegate

"With over 3 million women battling breast cancer today, everywhere you turn there is a mother, daughter, sister, or friend who has been affected by breast cancer."

- Betsey Johnson

"I am a 36-year-old person with breast cancer, and not many people know that that happens to women my age or women in their 20s. This is my opportunity now to go out and fight as hard as I can for early detection."

- Christina Applegate

"I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."

- Angelina Jolie

"I'm here today because I refused to be unhappy. I took a chance."

- Wanda Sykes

"Once you choose hope, anything’s possible."

- Christopher Reeve

"We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up or fight like hell."

- Lance Armstrong

"'Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end.' Ever since I was diagnosed with breast cancer this quote has been my mantra. These words have been my anthem, my inspiration, my comfort and my prayer."

- Giuliana Rancic

"Joy shouldn’t go away because you have cancer."

- Mandi Hudson

"I don't have breasts—so why do I have to pretend like I do? That stuff isn't important. I'm just grateful to have been born at a time when the research made it possible for me to survive. I feel so incredibly lucky to be alive."

- Kathy Bates

"I'm stronger than I thought I was. My favorite phrase has been, 'This too shall pass.' I now understand it really well."

- Robin Roberts

"Once I overcame breast cancer, I wasn’t afraid of anything anymore."

- Melissa Etheridge

"It's an honor to be alive, to be a survivor, to be able to give a message of fighting, of strength, to all women and friends who are going through this."

- Alejandra Guzmán

"I am a better parent. I yell less and cuddle more with my daughters. I am a better wife. I yell less and choose my words more carefully, remembering we are what we say...I'm not saying cancer is a gift — because if it was I would gladly return it — but now that the box has been opened, so have my eyes and my heart."

- Amy Robach

"Try to find the moments in your day that give you joy and give you happiness, because there's still time to laugh, and life is going on."

- Rita Wilson

"'Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end.' Ever since I was diagnosed with breast cancer, this quote has been my mantra. These words have been my anthem, my inspiration, my comfort and my prayer."

- Giuliana Rancic

"I do feel different, but I can’t quite articulate how. I’ve come out the other side of this, and I’m still not exactly sure how to define the difference other than to say I’m grateful, of course, but it’s more than that. It’s bigger."

- Julia Louis-Dreyfus

"I think our scars remind us of what we have overcome. They are part of what makes each of us unique. That diversity is one of the things that is most beautiful about human existence."

- Angelina Jolie

"And if it comes back, I’ll keep fighting."

- Nicole Kramer

"The old cliché about laughter being the best medicine turns out to be true. When I was getting my hideous chemotherapy, I'd cram a bunch of friends and family into the tiny treatment room with me...We really did have some great laughs."

- Julia Louis-Dreyfus

"In the war against breast cancer, we have the ability to arm ourselves with knowledge and education is a powerful tool. By taking action and doing something positive, fear is replaced with hope."

- Diahann Carroll

"I found my lump in a self-exam! Because I was familiar with my body and the lumps, I knew this one felt different. It was in a different place on my breast, and it was hard. If I hadn’t been doing self-exams, I wouldn’t have known that."

- Robin Roberts

"Don’t delegate your survival to the doctors and hope for the best. You have to participate in your own cure. You have to fight."

- Lawrence Wray

"Fight each round, take it on the chin. And never never never ever give in."

- Olivia Newton John

"One thing that I would say to someone who's just been diagnosed with breast cancer is to still try to find the moments in your day that give you joy and give you happiness, because there's still time to laugh, and life is going on."

- Rita Wilson

"My scars? I barely see them. I feel whole; I really do. Because every day, I get to say, ‘There’s no cancer.’ I’m healthy, and that’s beautiful."

- Wanda Sykes

"My scars? I barely see them. I feel whole; I really do. Because every day, I get to say, 'There’s no cancer.' I’m healthy, and that’s beautiful."

- Wanda Sykes

"I'm battling cancer. It's another battle I intend to win."

- Arlen Specter

"Cancer survivors are blessed with two lives. There is your life before cancer, and your life after. I am here to tell you your second life is going to be so much better than the first."

- Hoda Kotb

"Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us."

- Samuel Smiles

"You have to be willing to give up the life you planned, and instead, greet the life that is waiting for you."

- Joseph Campbell

"People go through challenging moments of losing people and of having their life threatened from illness and real grief. But they get through it. And that’s the testament to the human spirit and it’s — we are fragile, but we also are divine."

- Sheryl Crow

"It's about focusing on the fight and not the fright."

- Robin Roberts

"Breast cancer is not just a disease that strikes at women. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as women: how others perceive us, how we perceive ourselves, how we live, work and raise our families — or whether we do these things at all."

- Debbie Wasserman Schultz

"Cancer no longer rules my life — I’m getting back to myself. I’m healed as much as anybody who’s gone through this can be, and I will continue to support and fight alongside my sisters. Once you’re in this family, you’re in for life."

- Sandra Lee

"While you may not have chosen to have breast cancer, you can choose how you want to be treated and how you will treat yourself moving forward. This is your wake-up call to take better care of yourself through diet, exercise, stress management and a better attitude and effort toward a healthier lifestyle."

- Melanie Young

"My will, my faith, and my body have been challenged. But make no mistake, my heart is strong and my resolve to fight will never be broken."

- Anastacia

"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

"I started to put myself first. I had voices at the back of my head telling me whatever I did wasn’t good enough. Now, finally, I’ve silenced them."

- Sheryl Crow

"Time is shortening. But every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me."

- Ingrid Bergman

"There can be life after breast cancer. The prerequisite is early detection."

- Ann Jillian

"It’s about focusing on the fight, not the fright."

- Robin Roberts

"Having had cancer, one important thing to know is you’re the same person at the end. You’re stripped down to near zero. But most people come out the other end feeling more like themselves than ever before."

- Kylie Minogue

"Cancer gave me a reason to be the best version of myself, and that’s what I’ve done. You realize that fear can either cripple you or it can motivate you, and it had been crippling me. And I decided to change it, and let that fear be motivating."

- Amy Robach

"I don't have breasts — so why do I have to pretend like I do? That stuff isn't important. I'm just grateful to have been born at a time when the research made it possible for me to survive. I feel so incredibly lucky to be alive."

- Kathy Bates

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."

- Cayla Mills

"It was a newfound level of support when I started to speak with other survivors... Knowing that they got to the other side, I knew that I too could get there."

- Samantha Harris

"A couple years ago I got breast cancer, and that was a good test, because I always said I'm not afraid of dying. And I wasn't. I mean, I felt, God, I've just joined a family of millions of women who have gone through this. And how interesting. What a journey this is going to be."

- Jane Fonda

"Cancer is a beast that changes one. For me, it changed me in a lot of beautiful ways."

- Shannen Doherty

"My diagnosis flung me into despair until it hit me: I’m alive."

- Dana Dinerman

"The goal is to live a full, productive life even with all that ambiguity. No matter what happens, whether the cancer never flares up again or whether you die, the important thing is that the days that you have had you will have lived."

- Gilda Radner

"Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today, I dare to win."

- Bernadette Devlin

"If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope?"

- Lance Armstrong

"Whether you’re a mother or father, or a husband or a son, or a niece or a nephew or uncle, breast cancer doesn’t discriminate."

- Stephanie McMahon

"Having had cancer, one important thing to know is you're still the same person at the end. You're stripped down to near-zero. But most people come out the other end feeling more like themselves than ever before."

- Kylie Minogue

"Since I had cancer, I've realized that every day is a bonus."

- Geoffrey Boycott

"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

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So the only thing to be really afraid of is if you don’t go get your mammograms."

- Cynthia Nixon

"I would like to take the stigma away. 'Mastectomy,' the word seemed to scary to me at first. After doing research and seeing the advancements, the surgery has come a long way from 20 years ago. The results can be incredible."

- Giuliana Rancic

"Cancer has shown me what family is. It showed me a love that I never knew really existed."

- Michael Douglas

"When someone has cancer, the whole family and everyone who loves them does, too."

- Terri Clark

"I started realizing I could be an example for women to not just be aware of breast cancer, but to act on it, to give themselves an exam."

- Giuliana Rancic

"No matter what the statistics say, there is always a way."

- Bernie Siegel

"When life kicks you, let it kick you forward."

- Kay Yow

"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow."

- Orison Swett Marden

"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a bloody army to battle cancer."

- Niyati Tamaskar

"Life’s better now. I wouldn’t do it all again, though. It’s funny how life works. Maybe it was meant to happen for many reasons because my life in many ways is richer."

- Giuliana Rancic

"Cancer affects all of us, whether you're a daughter, mother, sister, friend, coworker, doctor, or patient."

- Jennifer Aniston

"Breast cancer, whether I like it or not, is part of my family’s story. That’s why I am so passionate about raising awareness because I have seen firsthand how it can impact others."

- DeAngelo Williams

"Cancer opens many doors. One of the most important is your heart."

- Greg Anderson

"Don’t misunderstand: I was to-my-bones terrified. But I didn’t let myself — except for a couple of moments — go to a really dark place. I didn’t allow it."

- Julia Louis-Dreyfus

"I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well, why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do."

- Shannen Doherty

"I think after overcoming breast cancer, you sort of become fearless and somehow going up to your boss to talk about a possible promotion doesn't seem like such a daunting task anymore."

- Hoda Kotb

"Ultimately, they're just breasts right? I mean, I love them, they're mine, they're beautiful, but in the grand scheme of things, I would rather be alive and I would rather grow old."

- Shannen Doherty

"I’ve always thought of myself as being a warrior. When you actually have a battle, it’s better than when you don’t know who to fight."

- Carly Simon

"If I can make my cancer purposeful, [I want to] have people understand that if you feel anything amiss, you have to say something. You might not get a response from your doctor that you like. They might push it off and say you don’t need a test or we’ll get you in at your next physical. But we know our body’s best."

- Clea Shearer

"A couple years ago I got breast cancer, and that was a good test, because I always said I’m not afraid of dying. And I wasn’t. I mean, I felt, God, I’ve just joined a family of millions of women who have gone through this. And how interesting. What a journey this is going to be."

- Jane Fonda

"Life’s better now. I wouldn’t do it all over again, though. It's funny how life works. Maybe it was meant to happen for many reasons because my life in many ways richer."

- Giuliana Rancic

"I laughed more in the hospital than I ever have in my life, making fun of all the weird things that were happening to me. My friends would walk in with this sad look, and I would throw something at them and say, ‘Come on! This isn’t the end of the world!’"

- Christina Applegate

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift – that’s why it’s called ‘the present.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under pressure."

- Peter Marshall

"Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher."

- Oprah

"Cancer is a word, not a sentence."

- John Diamond

"But it is possible to take control and tackle head-on any health issue. You can seek advice, learn about the options and make choices that are right for you. Knowledge is power."

- Angelina Jolie

"This turned out to be a very good thing. I stopped. I looked at my life, I looked at my body and spirit. I got a new perspective. That's brought me incredible clarity and a lot of peace."

- Melissa Etheridge

"More than 10 million Americans are living with cancer, and they demonstrate the ever-increasing possibility of living beyond cancer."

- Sheryl Crow

"I found this breast cancer community to be such an amazing, powerful, compassionate alliance."

- Joan Lunden

"I think after overcoming breast cancer, you sort of become fearless and somehow going up to your boss to talk about a possible promotion doesn’t seem like such a daunting task anymore."

- Hoda Kotb

"Cancer is really hard to go through and it's really hard to watch someone you love go through, and I know because I have been on both sides of the equation."

- Cynthia Nixon

"Having cancer does make you try to be better at everything you do and enjoy every moment. It changes you forever. But it can be a positive change."

- Jaclyn Smith

"I can’t stress enough how important it is to get screened and checked for all cancers — and to do self breast-exams."

- Robin Roberts

"The only person who can save you is you."

- Sheryl Crow

"I always look on the positive side and in a weird way just thought of it as another adventure. Not for a single second did it go through my head that I was going to die."

- Caroline Monk

"At the end of the day, none of it matters but your own joy, your own spiritual journey that you go on, God, your loved ones, your friends, your animals. These are the things you've got to cherish and love and embrace."

- Christina Applegate

"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

"Ultimately, they're just breasts, right? I mean, I love them, they're mine, they're beautiful, but in the grand scheme of things, I would rather be alive, and I would rather grow old with my husband."

- Shannen Doherty

"Fear does its best work in isolation. Courage wears the face of your ability to love and be loved. Breakthrough happens when you discover your self-worth had nothing to do with what you looked like."

- Lynn Jones

"It drove home, personally, the value of early detection and education and intervention."

- Janet Napolitano

"Every woman needs to know the facts. And the fact is, when it comes to breast cancer, every woman is at risk."

- Debbie Wasserman Schultz

"Have your own experience and trust your intuition. A million people will tell you what you should and shouldn’t be doing, but you know yourself and your body best — do what you think is right."

- Christina Steinorth-Powell

"Having had cancer, one important thing to know is you're still the same person at the end. You're stripped down to near zero. But most people come out the other end feeling more like themselves than ever before."

- Kylie Minogue

"You are not your scars."

- Malisa Morris

"I've always thought of myself as being a warrior. When you actually have a battle, it's better than when you don't know who to fight."

- Carly Simon

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So the only thing to really be afraid of is if you don't go get your mammograms."

- Cynthia Nixon

"Cancer and its aftermath changed my outlook in a profound way. I've become less of a hermit, and I travel more."

- Kathy Bates

"Life's better now. I wouldn't do it all over again, though. It's funny how life works. Maybe it was meant to happen for many reasons, because my life in many ways richer."

- Giuliana Rancic

"Breast cancer changes you, and the change can be beautiful."

- Jane Cook

"Now I have a third must-do on my list of things to do with cancer, and it's this: follow your gut, ask questions, don't be complacent."

- Cynthia Nixon

"If you have a friend or family member with breast cancer, try not to look at her with 'sad eyes.' Treat her like you always did; just show a little extra love."

- Hoda Kotb

"I think cancer is a hard battle to fight alone or with another person at your side, but I will say having someone to pick you up when you fall, stand by your side through every appointment and delivery of bad news, is priceless."

- Jenna Morasca

"Breast cancer is scary and no one understands that like another woman who has gone through it too."

- Mindy Sterling

"It's a life-changing thing to be in a position of needing help and being so lucky as to get it."

- Maura Tierney

"I know how to put on my battle gear and I'm a fighter."

- Suzanne Somers

"I’m going to have cute boobs 'til I’m 90, so there’s that. I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."

- Christina Applegate

"The cancer served a real purpose, making me a little bit more conscious of time."

- Gloria Steinem

"Don’t let breast cancer take away the motivation to achieve your dreams."

- Dianna Cohen

"If a relative has suffered ovarian or breast cancer, get the genetic screening. It saves lives."

- Lisa Jey Davis

"Obviously, it wasn’t meant for me to die of cancer at 40. Every day my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That’s our job as humans."

- Edie Falco

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Cancer is really hard to go through and it’s really hard to watch someone you love go through, and I know because I have been on both sides of the equation."

- Cynthia Nixon

"Many, many years ago, I was on a boat with my husband. I was swimming in the water. He came to the bow of the boat and he said, ‘Jules, I don’t want you to panic, but there’s a shark in the water, so you need to come back.’ And I was far away from the boat. And so, I just saw the ladder and I started swimming toward it, and I made the decision not to look around me at all. I was just going to stay looking at the ladder. And that very much applied to how I got through my cancer adventure—was sort of looking at the ladder. Just let’s get this done, let’s get there."

- Julia Louis-Dreyfus

"When fear knocks, let faith answer the door."

- Robin Roberts

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

- Robert Brault

"If you can't make it better, you can laugh at it."

- Erma Bombeck

"Every day my life surprises me, just like my cancer diagnosis surprised me. But you roll with it. That’s our job as humans."

- Edie Falco

"Do not partner with fear to help you make decisions."

- Jeannette Gregory

"Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth."

- Susan Taylor

"If you have any doubt, go back again...because someone is in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn't necessarily mean they're right."

- Kylie Minogue

"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles."

- Alex Karras

"Surviving cancer treatment is like coming home from war."

- Saskia Lightstar

"The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill, in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery."

- Allen Klein

"I have lived over a decade now without a mom. She met only a few of her grandchildren and was often too sick to play with them. My mother fought the disease for a decade and made it into her 50s. My grandmother died in her 40s. I'm hoping my choices allow me to live a bit longer."

- Angelina Jolie

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a difference."

- Winston Churchill

"It's very important to keep your mind busy with positive events and activities and the like. The most important truth? You start looking at every day in a more profound way."

- Diahann Carroll

"Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway."

- Emory Austin

"When I was going through my cancer treatment, I learned that you can never ask a stupid question. I asked every single question that came to my mind, and I believe that helped to calm my own anxiety."

- Maura Tierney

"If you have any doubt, go back again...because someone is in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right."

- Kylie Minogue

"Our way is not soft grass; it’s a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upwards, forward, toward the sun."

- Ruth Westheimer

"Keep your sunny side up, keep yourself beautiful, and indulge yourself."

- Betsey Johnson

"Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today, let us begin."

- Mother Teresa

"Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark."

- Rabindranath Tagore

"Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it today."

- Peter Kuzmic

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

- Albert Camus

"Have your own experience and trust your intuition. A million people will tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing, but you know yourself and your body best—do what you think is right."

- Christina Steinorth-Powell

"With breast cancer, it’s all about detection. You have to educate young women and encourage them to do everything they have to do."

- Bill Rancic

"I personally know women who are breast cancer survivors and I will do all I can to support the cause. Besides, I love boobies!"

- Jane Wiedlin

"Once cancer happens, it changes the way you live for the rest of your life."

- Hayley Mills

"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

"Fearless does not mean you aren’t afraid; it means you accept the fear and move forward anyway."

- Brianne Joseph

"Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always."

- Hippocrates

"Sometimes little acts of self-care and self-understanding make all the difference. Cry, wallow, and then hop in the shower or take a warm bath."

- Meredith Goldberg

"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."

- C.C. Scott

"A woman is like a tea bag; you cannot tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."

- Nancy Reagan

"After something so life-changing, all these little fears seem like no big deal."

- Karen Lewis

"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you."

- Isaiah 43:2

"When you notice that you’re having negative thoughts about how all of this is going to pan out, you need to remind yourself that you are not a very good fortune teller."

- Donna W. Hill

"Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."

- Psalm 62:1-2

"The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart."

- Nikolai Lenin

"Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be."

- Sonia Ricotti

"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

"My relationship with my body has changed. I used to consider it as a servant who should obey, function, give pleasure. In sickness, you realize that you are not the boss. It is the other way around."

- Federico Fellini

"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

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

- Psalm 46:1

"When I first was diagnosed, my gut reaction was, ‘This is a terrible thing.’ But as my journey has progressed, I feel so blessed because I’ve experienced the most incredible outpouring of love you can imagine."

- Victoria Lavine

"My diagnosis flung me into despair until it hit me: I’m Alive"

- Dana Dinerman

"Keep your sunny side up, keep yourself beautiful, and indulge yourself!"

- Betsey Johnson

"I personally know women who are breast cancer survivors and will do all I can to support the cause. Besides, I love boobies!"

- Jane Wiedlin

"It's OK not to be OK all the time."

- Shauna Kirby

"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."

"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons."

"Today will never come again. Be a blessing. Be a friend. Encourage someone. Take time to care. Let your words heal, and not wound."

"Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."

"Cancer cannot cripple love, it cannot shatter hope, it cannot conquer the spirit."