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
The race is not [always] to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruit.
—German Proverb
Your three best doctors are faith, time, and patience.
—Unknown
One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
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
He that can’t endure the bad will not live to see the good.
—Yiddish Proverb
Serene I fold my hands and wait.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
Who longest waits most surely wins.
—Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–85) American Novelist, Civil Rights Activist
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
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
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.
—Ivy Baker Priest (1905–75) American Politician
Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.
—Bernard Williams (1929–2003) English Philosopher
The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
The secret of patience… to do something else in the meantime.
—Unknown
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Time, in the turning-over of days, works change for better or worse.
—Pindar (c.518–c.438 BCE) Greek Lyric Poet
Time bears away all things, even the mind.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
How poor are they that have not patience? What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Perhaps one day this too will be pleasant to remember.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
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
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
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
All things come round to him who will but wait.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure – something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom—as something they thought was almost a necessity. It’s as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need.
—Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American Business Academic, Author
Come what may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Patience and fortitude conquer all things.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
—J. K. Rowling (b.1965) English Novelist
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