I AM NEARLY A MONTH BEHIND IN POSTING THIS. I do apologise. Chronic illness and all.
For the month of July I decided to focus on quotes about patience. It’s a quality you need in abundance when you’re chronically ill, because nothing moves quickly. Getting specialist appointments, getting surgery, your medication taking effect…everything happens at a glacial pace, and it feels like doctors’ favourite phrase is “let’s just wait for six months and see how it goes.”
I’ve decided to continue providing links to the authors of these quotes. I want to make it clear that where I have quoted someone, it is not because I necessarily agree with their entire life philosophy. I just like that quote. I may not even agree with the quote itself in its entirety. For example, Joyce Meyer, author of the second quote, has previously preached the Prosperity Gospel (e.g. the belief that you get what you deserve in this life, and that poverty, sickness and other bad things are a result of a lack of faith). She has since said that she has realised that is wrong. Likewise, I don’t entirely agree with Aristotle’s quote – the results of patience are sometimes disappointing.
On a different note, how great is today’s stock image of a pineapple waiting? I’m not sure what it’s waiting for, but I bet it’s being patience as heck.
With all that said, here are some quotes about patience:
- “Adopt the post of nature: her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.” – Joyce Meyer
- “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle (or possibly Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
- “Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.” – Anonymous
- “The secret of patience is to do something else in the meantime.” – Croft M Pentz
- “Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it’s cowardice.” – George Jackson
- “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” – Saint Augustine
- “Have patience will all things, but first of all with yourself.” – Saint Francis de Sales
- “It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.” – Julius Caesar
- “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.” – Heraclitus
- “I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.” – Dame Edith Sitwell
- “Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things – with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.” – Corazon Aquino
- “Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has far more patience.” – Laurence J Peter
- “Abused patience turns to fury.” – Thomas Fuller
- “How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” – William Shakespeare
- “Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct.” – Phaedrus
- “Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.” – Margaret J Wheatley
- “Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.” – Peter Marshall
- “What we all need to do is find the wellspring that keeps us going, that gives us the strength and patience to keep up this struggle for a long time.” – Winona LaDuke
- “All men commend patience, although few are willing to practice it.” – Thomas von Kempen
- “A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience.” – John Updike
- “Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.” – Søren Kierkegaard
- “Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength.” – Bruce Lee
- “We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” – Helen Keller
- “I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.” – Margaret Thatcher
- “Nothing else is necessary but these – love, sincerity, and patience.” – Swami Vivekananda
- “Patience isn’t a virtue; it’s a necessity.” – Lou Holtz
- “Almost everything is outside of your control. You may take all the right actions and fail. You may take no action and win. All you can do is put yourself is positions to win. Be consistent. Patience will eventually get luck on your side.” – Crypto Seneca
- “All good things arrive unto them that wait – and don’t die in the meantime.” – Mark Twain
- “The more you ask how much longer it will take, the longer the journey seems.” – Maori saying
- “What may not be altered is made lighter by patience.” – Horace
How do you help cultivate patience in your own life? What tests your patience most of all? Let me know in the comments.
Bubbles in the Brain 