Illness Quotes

“I can always be a person who has had a cancer... but I don't have to be a person who is living with cancer.”

“I think one of the terrible things about the disease is that you are forced to be a kind of optimist.”

“I came face to face with death at 13 years old.”

“We should not be ashamed to talk about mental illness. It is a medical illness, like any other.”

“I am not going to be a ridiculously optimistic invalid, for I should like to be a beautifully patient one.”

“Having cancer gave me membership in a club I'd rather not belong to.”

“The chamber of the sick is the chapel of the temple of temperance.”

“For in this sick-room, even the doctors' presence is oppressive, a constant reminder of my own helplessness.”

“A phobia about homosexuality is a prejudice, and prejudice is a form of illness.”

“We can’t just 'pray away' depression any more than we can 'pray away' cancer or diabetes.”

“Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.”

“Cancer is probably the most unfunny thing in the world, but I'm a comedian, and even cancer couldn't stop me from seeing the humor in what I was going through.”

“I never thought I would get cancer.”

“I have Parkinson's. It's not infectious. I'm not going to die tomorrow. But it does get you in the end.”

“You can't let a diagnosis rule your life.”

“I decided to call my cancer 'Rupert', after Rupert Murdoch...”

“Mental illness and chemical dependency are not moral failures... They are diseases that deserve the same attention as any other illness.”

“I was told I had cancer of the mouth. I was devastated. But I am a fighter.”

“Most people who are HIV positive are not injecting drugs or having sex with lots of people. It's a cruel illness that came out of nowhere.”

“This is not a death sentence. It’s a life sentence.”