Home > Quotes > Health & Illness

The key to battling illness lies in summoning a vigorous life-force and a positive fighting spirit. This brings out the full effectiveness of a curative treatment.

It is painful to suffer illness, but the most painful thing of all is to feel abandoned by everyone, that no one cares about you. When the dark hole of despair pierces your heart, your life force drains away. That is why it is so important not to abandon or forget those who are sick or in trouble. We need to continuously and gently communicate to them that we sincerely want them to get better.
While it is absurd to reject medical science, the principal factor in overcoming illness is the patient and his or her “life force.” In medical terms, it is our capacity to heal ourselves. Life force is a mystic phenomenon that transcends human understanding.
It is precisely because we battle with sickness that we are able to experience firsthand the best and worst in life, allowing us to forge the strength within ourselves that will never succumb. That time of struggle enables one to empathize with the suffering of the sick.
Don’t confuse good health with not being sick. A truly healthy life is one spent creating value—tackling the challenges thrown at us over a lifetime, striving to achieve something worthy and meaningful; constantly expanding the frontiers of our lives.
The key to battling illness lies in summoning a vigorous life-force and a positive fighting spirit. This brings out the full effectiveness of a curative treatment.
Is health a state where one’s body is simply free of disease? Good health is mustering a robust attitude to aggressively combat any malicious threats to our well-being. It is in this unyielding resolve to fight, challenge, create and ceaselessly advance that we find the basis of true human health.
Sickness and death are unavoidable in life. To experience illness is not itself misfortune, but to be defeated by illness is misfortune.

Stories of Hope

The Writer's Path

Chingiz Aitmatov

Author of what has been called “the most beautiful love story in the world,” Chingiz Aitmatov underwent severe suffering in his youth.

Stories of Hope

Facing Challenges

Whilst the stark truth is that hardship and difficulties are inevitable and inescapable, the definitive question may be whether we yield under their weight or use them as an opportunity to better ourselves. Read here ...

Stories of Hope

Staying Young

Insights into staying youthful from an octogenarian who shouldn’t have lived beyond his thirties. Ikeda reminds us that our approach to aging and death will have a major impact on the quality of the final chapters of our lives. Read here ...