Genius is eternal patience.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
That’s the advantage of having lived 65 years. You don’t feel the need to be impatient any longer.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words, ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Patience and fortitude conquer all things.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
He that can have patience can have what he will.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
He that can’t endure the bad will not live to see the good.
—Yiddish Proverb
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Our toil is sweet with thankfulness, Our burden is our boon; The curse of earth’s gray morning is The blessing of its noon.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
The race is not [always] to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Sometimes I found that in my happy moments I could not believe that I had ever been miserable.
—Marion Milner (‘Joanna Field’) (1900–98) British Writer, Psychoanalyst
Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.
—Bernard Williams (1929–2003) English Philosopher
Who longest waits most surely wins.
—Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–85) American Novelist, Civil Rights Activist
The secret of patience… to do something else in the meantime.
—Unknown
The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Fall seven times and stand up eight.
—Japanese Proverb
Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) Irish-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Time, in the turning-over of days, works change for better or worse.
—Pindar (c.518–c.438 BCE) Greek Lyric Poet
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them—every day begin the task anew.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Serene I fold my hands and wait.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
Time is like a river of fleeting events, and its current is strong; as soon as something comes into sight, it is swept past us, and something else takes its place, and that too will be swept away.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
And he shall reign a goodly king And sway his hand o’er every clime With peace writ on his signet ring, Who bides his time.
—James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer
Perhaps one day this too will be pleasant to remember.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
Time brings all things to pass.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
Come what may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.
—Japanese Proverb
Your three best doctors are faith, time, and patience.
—Unknown
Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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