“Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.”
This Business of Living (1935-1950)
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Cesare Pavese 137
Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator 1908–1950Related quotes
“… and there was nothing to do except to wait and to hurt.”
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“The hooks have got to come off and I can wait. They are nothing but sore fingers.”
Charles Frederick Webber interviewed at a field hospital following the Battle of Gettysburg. He was holding his hand, from which the ends of four fingers had been shot off. He was smoking his pipe with with no sense of urgency and was allowing more wounded soldiers to go ahead of him. He died on July 19, 1863, 13 days after the wound, from the subsequent infection.
Quote
Source: [The Wounded, New York Herald, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/New_York_Herald/1863/The_Wounded, July 6 1863]

Variant: If I ever fall in love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.
Source: What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006), Ch. 21, pp. 317-318
Source: What Is the What
Context: I cannot count the times I have cursed our lack of urgency. If I ever love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.