Living with chronic pain means hearing a lot of faux-wisdom chronic pain quotes from people who have decided they know what you’re going through. So you’ll often get “you should do this” or “have you ever tried that?” And the advice these people are giving out is usually pretty useless.

They simply don’t know anything about what chronic pain is actually like. So how could they know how to offer any meaningful advice? But there are plenty of people out there who have experienced enough pain in their lives to offer some really profound words of encouragement. And when you’re suffering from the chronic pain of fibromyalgia, sometimes you really need someone to help you put your pain in perspective. So, here are eight chronic pain quotes to help you cope with fibromyalgia.

8 Chronic Pain Quotes

People assume you aren’t sick unless they see the sickness on your skin like scars forming a map of all the ways you’re hurting. My heart is a prison of Have you tried?
Have you tried exercising? Have you tried eating better?
Have you tried not being sad, not being sick?
Have you tried being more like me?
Have you tried shutting up?
Yes, I have tried. Yes, I am still trying, and yes, I am still sick.
Sometimes monsters are invisible, and sometimes demons attack you from the inside. Just because you cannot see the claws and the teeth does not mean they aren’t ripping through me. Pain does not need to be seen to be felt. Telling me there is no problem won’t solve the problem.
This is not how miracles are born.
This is not how sickness works.”
― Emm Roy, The First Step

One of my favorite chronic pain quotes from author Emm Roy really sums up what it’s like to live with chronic pain from a condition like fibromyalgia, which no one can see. After all, that’s one of the most infuriating things about fibromyalgia. The way that people just refuse to accept that you are suffering feels so unfair. And this is a good reminder that just because your suffering is easy to see doesn’t mean that it isn’t suffering.

“Of pain, you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain, there are no heroes.” – George Orwell, 1984

A much-quoted author also makes our list of chronic pain quotes. Shot in the throat during the Spanish Civil War, novelist George Orwell knew pain very well. And he understood that all the ways that people talk about enduring pain with some quiet stoicism are over-simplifying it. This quote sums it up really well when it says that, “In the face of pain, there are no heroes.” Don’t be ashamed when your pain gets the best of you sometimes. That’s what pain does.

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

Famous actress Elizabeth Taylor endured a lot of pain in her life, having gone through several different chronic health conditions. And this quote from her really speaks to how you have to live with chronic pain. You have to force yourself to live in spite of the constant misery. There is simply no other option.

“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt faced a lot of adversity in his life. He grew up a sickly child and saw his wife and daughter die on the same day when he was a young man. But he overcame all of that and was one of our most beloved president’s. This chronic pain quote is a good reminder that you need that kind of spirit of resilience. You can’t fight through pain, you can’t overcome it, you can only endure it.

“Something very beautiful happens to people when their world falls apart. A humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor.” – Marianne Wilson

Of course, there aren’t too many upsides to chronic pain. And in fact, there probably is no such thing as a silver lining to this cloud, but this chronic pain quote by Marianne Wilson is probably the closest. It’s a good reminder that your pain can make you a stronger person. And in many ways, you have more depth of character, more capacity to endure, and a better understanding of the world as it really is when you’ve lived with chronic pain.

It doesn’t make your pain “useful,” as people often say, but it’s at least something.

“You are so brave and quiet I forget you are suffering.”- Earnest Hemingway

This quote from A Farewell to Arms is a reminder that too often the only reward you get for enduring your pain with silent courage is that people forget you have pain. That doesn’t mean that you should try to complain more, it’s just one more thing that’s hard to deal with when it comes to chronic pain. And maybe if you know someone who is suffering, this chronic pain quote is a good reminder of how important it is to let them know that you know they hurt.

“In the depth of winter, I learned that within me lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus

This quote from writer Albert Camus is a poetic way to express the type of strength that comes from within, and makes our list of chronic pain quotes. When you live with chronic pain, you have to find the strength to live through it or you don’t tend to live through it. That’s where that invincible summer of positivity comes in. It’s not a feeling that the world will all be alright in the end, but it’s knowing that no matter what happens, you can endure it.

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

This quote by poet Khalil Gibran reminds us that suffering makes you strong in one sense. People who have never known the chronic pain don’t develop the deep reservoir of spirit that you will. And while that doesn’t make pain a good thing, and it certainly doesn’t make it “worth it,” it is a simple truth that you can take some comfort in. You are strong enough to endure the pain, so you are very strong indeed.

What are your favorite chronic pain quotes? Let us know in the comments.