“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Patientia comes est sapientiae
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
De Patientia http://www.augustinus.it/latino/pazienza/index.htm chapter 5
Quotes about patience
A collection of quotes on the topic of patience, time, timing, doing.
Best quotes about patience
“Patience is the art of hoping.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
La patience est l’art d’espérer.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
“Patience and time do more than strength or passion.”
Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.
Patience et longueur de temps
Font plus que force ni que rage.
Book II (1668), fable 11.
Fables (1668–1679)
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Possess your soul in patience - you will see!”
Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
Source: The Glass Menagerie
“I have no patience for anybody that doubts me, none at all.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor
1990s, Ed Gordon interview (1994)
“Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 170
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
Quotes about patience
“Time is still the best critic, and patience the best teacher.”
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer
As quoted in Chopin : Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils.
Source: Chopin : Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils (1986) by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Roy Howat, Naomi Shohet, and Krysia Osostowicz, p. 23
Meryl Streep (1949) American actress
Misattributed to Meryl Streep (and widely disseminated on the Internet as of August/September 2014), this quote is allegedly a translation of a text by the author José Micard Teixeira, the original of which begins (in Portuguese): "Já não tenho paciência para algumas coisas, não porque me tenha tornado arrogante..."
Misattributed
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
… live in the question.”
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Source: Letters to a Young Poet
Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly
The Soul of a Butterfly, 2004
Variant: All through my life I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey
Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement
Julius Caesar (-100–-44 BC) Roman politician and general
Disputed
Original: (la) Qui se ultro morti offerant facilius reperiuntur quam qui dolorem patienter ferant.
Quoted in many works without citation
Francisco Palau (1811–1872) Beatified Spanish Discalced Carmelite friar and priest
Letter to Juana Gratia (1857)
Ali book Nahj al-Balagha
Nahj al-Balagha
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
"The Art of Living", interview with journalist Gordon Young first published in 1960
Variant: [T]here are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea
Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929-1932 (1973), p. 3
Source: Gift from the Sea
Context: I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable. All these and other factors combined, if the circumstances are right, can teach and can lead to rebirth.
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
"Recipe of life" video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7iPACdA1HQ <br class="br">Interview with David Frost (1974)
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
As quoted in Sunbeams : A Book of Quotations (1990) by Sy Safransky, p. 42
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Source: The Gay Science
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Malcolm X: The Man and his Times, edited by John Henrik Clarke and published by Africa World Press in 1990, p. 304 http://books.google.de/books?id=43NsDThPEzgC&q=We+need+more+light+about+each+other.+Light,+creates+understanding,+understanding+creates+love,+love+creates+patience,+and+patience+creates+unity.+Once+we+have+more+knowledge+(light)+about+each+other,+we+will+stop+condemning+each+other+and+a+United+front+will+be+brought+about&dq=We+need+more+light+about+each+other.+Light,+creates+understanding,+understanding+creates+love,+love+creates+patience,+and+patience+creates+unity.+Once+we+have+more+knowledge+(light)+about+each+other,+we+will+stop+condemning+each+other+and+a+United+front+will+be+brought+about&hl=de&sa=X&ei=RhSgT_XXCsHVtAaW_sGlAQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA <br class="br">Context: Ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible in the past. Therefore we need enlightenment. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity. Once we have more knowledge (light) about each other, we will stop condemning each other and a United front will be brought about.
“Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”
Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker
Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind
Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) German canon regular
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 442.
Marat, act 1, scene 13 (p. 28)
Marat/Sade (1963)
Xi Jinping (1953) General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and paramount leader of China
As quoted in "China’s Xi pledges peaceful ties with Taiwan in meeting" http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/02/26/2003555737 in Taipei Times (26 February 2013). <br class="br">2010s
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II
Testimony before the Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations (15 May 1951), published in Military Situation in the Far East, hearings, 82d Congress, 1st session, part 2 (1951), p. 732.
Variation: "… a wrong war at the wrong place and against a wrong enemy."
Military Situation, p. 753.
Ismail ibn Musa Menk (1975) Muslim cleric and Grand Mufti of Zimbabwe.
4 April 2016 https://twitter.com/muftimenk/status/716954516843790336 <br class="br">Twitter
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Letter Nine (4 November 1904)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) German canon regular
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 515.
“Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.”
Albert Camus book A Happy Death
Seulement, il faut du temps pour être heureux. Beaucoup de temps. Le bonheur lui aussi est une longue patience.
A Happy Death (1971)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
The Gay Science (1882)
Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Said to Enver Hoxha, on their second meeting together in March-April 1949, as quoted in Hoxha's (1986) The Artful Albanian, (Chatto & Windus, London), ISBN 0701129700
Contemporary witnesses
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”
Hal Borland (1900–1978) American journalist and writer
Countryman: A Summary of Belief, Lippincott, 1965, p. 99
“Men disappoint me so, I disappoint myself so, yet courage, patience, shuffle the cards …”
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist
Letter to Reverend William Henry Channing http://web.csustan.edu:80/english/reuben/pal/chap4/channing_henry.html (21 February 1841) quoted in Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1898) by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, p. 112.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Floor Statement on Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007 (30 January 2007)
2007
“If you are wholly perplexed and in straits,
have patience, for patience is the key to joy.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
Rumi Daylight (1990)
“Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Part 4, Chapter 5.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Contarini Fleming (1832)
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)
John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and physician
§ 116
The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695)
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
US Senator William Edgar Borah, writing in The Reader's Digest, Vol. 8, Issue 2 (1929), p. 776; this has only rarely begun to be attributed to Washington, since about 2010.
Misattributed
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Floor Statement on President's Decision to Increase Troops in Iraq (19 January 2007)
2007
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
On young couples who have not yet matured enough to recognize and respect each other's solitude
Letter Seven (14 May 1904)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996) sixth President of India
Source: Pranab Mukherjee "Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at the concluding function of the centenary celebrations of the former President of India, Dr. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy"
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 129.
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Part 5 "On training in Jeet Kune Do"
Jeet Kune Do (1997)
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Source: 1850s, Practice in Christianity (September 1850), p. 18-19
Context: Accept the invitation so that the inviter may save you from what is so hard and dangerous to be saved from, so that, saved, you may be with him who is the Savior of all, of innocence also. For even if it were possible that utterly pure innocence was to be found somewhere, why should it not also need a Savior who could keep it safe from evil! –The invitation stands at the crossroad, there where the way of sin turns more deeply into sin. Come here, all you who are lost and gone astray, whatever your error and sin, be it to human eyes more excusable and yet perhaps more terrible, or be it to human eyes more terrible and yet perhaps more excusable, be it disclosed here on earth or be it hidden and yet known in heaven-and even if you found forgiveness on earth but no peace within, or found no forgiveness because you did not seek it, or because you sought it in vain: oh, turn around and come here, here is rest! The invitation stands at the crossroad, there where the way of sin turns off for the last time and disappears from view in-perdition. Oh, turn around, turn around, come here; do not shrink from the difficulty of retreat, no matter how hard it is; do not be afraid of the laborious pace of conversion, however toilsomely it leads to salvation, whereas sin leads onward with winged speed, with mounting haste-or leads downward so easily, so indescribably easily, indeed, as easily as when the horse, completely relieved of pulling, cannot, not even with all its strength, stop the wagon, which runs it into the abyss. Do not despair over every relapse, which the God of patience has the patience to forgive and under which a sinner certainly should have the patience to humble himself. No, fear nothing and do not despair; he who says “Come here” is with you on the way; from him there is help and forgiveness on the way of conversion that leads to him, and with him is rest.
William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.
Letter to Major R.M. Sawyer https://books.google.com/books?id=KZAtAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280&dq=%22If+they+want+eternal+war%22&source=bl&ots=hqqkcQXgYR&sig=op8FljMWJcliz6HsZRrfGO9ShJs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjx38jz5KrKAhVHMz4KHbleCckQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=%22If%20they%20want%20eternal%20war%22&f=false (31 January 1864), from Vicksburg. <br class="br">1860s, 1864, Letter to R.M. Sawyer (January 1864) <br class="br">Context: p>If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence.</p
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian
In Praise of Marriage (1519), in Erasmus on Women (1996) Erika Rummel <!-- De Conscribendis Epistolas -->
Context: I have no patience with those who say that sexual excitement is shameful and that venereal stimuli have their origin not in nature, but in sin. Nothing is so far from the truth. As if marriage, whose function cannot be fulfilled without these incitements, did not rise above blame. In other living creatures, where do these incitements come from? From nature or from sin? From nature, of course. It must borne in mind that in the apetites of the body there is very little difference between man and other living creatures. Finally, we defile by our imagination what of its own nature is fair and holy. If we were willing to evaluate things not according to the opinion of the crowd, but according to nature itself, how is it less repulsive to eat, chew, digest, evacuate, and sleep after the fashion of dumb animals, than to enjoy lawful and permitted carnal relations?
“Our patience wore rather thin. Visitors do tend to chafe one, though impeccable as friends.”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer
5 April 1918
A Moment's Liberty (1990)
Context: Our patience wore rather thin. Visitors do tend to chafe one, though impeccable as friends. L. and I discussed this. He says that with people in the house his hours of positive pleasure are reduced to one; he has I forget how many hours of negative pleasure; and a respectable margin of the acutely unpleasant. Are we growing old?
“To understand oneself requires patience, tolerant awareness”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
"Fifth Talk in The Oak Grove, 11 June 1944" http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=173&chid=4529&w=%22To+understand+oneself+requires+patience%22&s=Text, J. Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 440611, Vol. III, p. 219 <br class="br">Posthumous publications, The Collected Works <br class="br">Context: To understand oneself requires patience, tolerant awareness; the self is a book of many volumes which you cannot read in a day, but when once you begin to read, you must read every word, every sentence, every paragraph for in them are the intimations of the whole. The beginning of it is the ending of it. If you know how to read, supreme wisdom is to be found.
William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) English mathematician and philosopher
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Duty of Inquiry
Context: It might be said to the agitator, "However convinced you were of the justice of your cause and the truth of your convictions, you ought not to have made a public attack upon any man's character until you had examined the evidence on both sides with the utmost patience and care."
In the first place, let us admit that, so far as it goes, this view of the case is right and necessary; right, because even when a man's belief is so fixed that he cannot think otherwise, he still has a choice in the action suggested by it, and so cannot escape the duty of investigating on the ground of the strength of his convictions; and necessary, because those who are not yet capable of controlling their feelings and thoughts must have a plain rule dealing with overt acts.
“The same is true of the passive qualities, patience under suffering, even pleasure in ill usage.”
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
Source: The Beloved Returns (1939), Ch. 7
Context: Cruelty is one of the chief ingredients of love, and divided about equally between the sexes: cruelty of lust, ingratitude, callousness, maltreatment, domination. The same is true of the passive qualities, patience under suffering, even pleasure in ill usage.
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
The Folly Of Being Comforted http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1623/ <br class="br">In The Seven Woods (1904) <br class="br">Context: One that is ever kind said yesterday:<br>'Your well-belovéd's hair has threads of grey,<br>And little shadows come about her eyes;<br>Time can but make it easier to be wise<br>Though now it seems impossible, and so<br>All that you need is patience.'<br>Heart cries, 'No,<br>I have not a crumb of comfort, not a grain.<br>Time can but make her beauty over again:<br>Because of that great nobleness of hers<br>The fire that stirs about her, when she stirs,<br>Burns but more clearly. O she had not these ways<br>When all the wild summer was in her gaze.'<br>O heart! O heart! if she'd but turn her head,<br>You'd know the folly of being comforted.
Ephrem the Syrian (306–373) Syriac deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century
"Prayer of Ephrem" as translated in The Lenten Triodion (1978) by Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, p. 69
Variant translations:
O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, your servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother: for you are blessed for ever and ever. Amen. O God, cleanse me, a sinner.
As translated in Who's Holding the Umbrella (1984) by William E. Yaeger, p. 70
Context: O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, Thy servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother: for blessed art Thou to the ages of ages. Amen. O God, cleanse me, a sinner.
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
Writing at the Yalu River (1895) quoted in Of Time, Passion, and Knowledge: Reflections on the Strategy of Existence (1990) by Julius Thomas Fraser, Part 2, Images in Heaven and on the Earth, Ch. IV, The Roots of Time in the Physical World. Sect. 3 The Living Symmetries of Physics
Context: You have neither the patience that weaves long lines nor a feeling for the irregular, nor a sense of the fittest place for a thing … For you intelligence is not one thing among many. You … worship it as if it were an omnipotent beast … a man intoxicated on it believes his own thoughts are legal decision, or facts themselves born of the crowd and time. He confuses his quick changes of heart with the imperceptible variation of real forms and enduring Beings.... You are in love with intelligence, until it frightens you. For your ideas are terrifying and your hearts are faint. Your acts of pity and cruelty are absurd, committed with no calm, as if they were irresistible. Finally, you fear blood more and more. Blood and time.
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Malcolm X: The Man and his Times, edited by John Henrik Clarke and published by Africa World Press in 1990, p. 304 http://books.google.de/books?id=43NsDThPEzgC&q=We+need+more+light+about+each+other.+Light,+creates+understanding,+understanding+creates+love,+love+creates+patience,+and+patience+creates+unity.+Once+we+have+more+knowledge+(light)+about+each+other,+we+will+stop+condemning+each+other+and+a+United+front+will+be+brought+about&dq=We+need+more+light+about+each+other.+Light,+creates+understanding,+understanding+creates+love,+love+creates+patience,+and+patience+creates+unity.+Once+we+have+more+knowledge+(light)+about+each+other,+we+will+stop+condemning+each+other+and+a+United+front+will+be+brought+about&hl=de&sa=X&ei=RhSgT_XXCsHVtAaW_sGlAQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA
“The reward of patience in the face of misfortune is more than what has been lost.”
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic
“Desire makes slaves out of kings, and patience makes kings out of slaves.”
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic
al-Ghazali https://awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/35-inspirational-imam-al-ghazali-quotes-on-success/
Thierry Baudet (1983) Dutch writer and jurist
Quo usque tandem factionem cartellum et officiorum machina patientia nostra abutitur dum navis praetoria resurrectionis ad profiscendum parata est? <br class="br">Hoelang stellen het partijkartel en de baantjescarrousel ons geduld nog op de proef terwijl het vlaggenschip van de renaissancevloot klaarligt? <br class="br"> 60th Plenary Session of the Tweede Kamer. https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/plenaire_verslagen/detail/fe96bbcd-c77d-4e32-9f78-481d7921f379 Maiden speech in Parliament on 28 March 2017. <br class="br">Modelled after the opening line of Cicero’s famous Catiline Orations: Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? <br class="br">In English: “How long will you, Catiline, abuse our patience?” <br class="br">Baudet makes several grammatical mistakes, namely, declining factio in the accusative singular factionem instead of the genitive plural factionum, conjugating abutor, abuti in the third-person singular present active indicative abutitur instead of the third-person plural present abutuntur or the third-person plural future abutentur, and declining proficiscor into the accusative gerund as *profiscendum instead of proficiscendum. <br class="br">A grammatically correct version would read: Quo usque tandem factionum cartellum et officiorum machina patientia nostra abutuntur dum navis praetoria resurrectionis ad proficiscendum parata est?
