75 Waiting Quotes For Inspiration

In a world that often moves at lightning speed, the virtue of patience can sometimes feel like a forgotten art. Yet, there's immense power in waiting—for the right moment, the perfect opportunity, or a simple chance to reflect and grow. Our curated collection of the top 75 waiting quotes aims to inspire and remind you that patience is not just a passive state, but a dynamic force that shapes our journeys. Whether you're waiting for a dream to come true or simply navigating the day-to-day uncertainties, these quotes will offer solace, motivation, and a fresh perspective on the art of waiting.

1. “For a while" is a phrase whose length can't be measured.At least by the person who's waiting.” - Haruki Murakami

2. “If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.” - Paulo Coelho

3. “He thought of the number of girls and women she had seen marry, how many homes with children in them she had seen grow up around her, how she had contentedly pursued her own lone quite path-for him.~ Stephen speaking of Rachael” - Charles Dickens

4. “I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself, the one my mind could see so clearly. In college, the post-college “adult” person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. Then the married person, then the person I’d become when we have kids. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that’s when life will really begin.And through all that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. I am waiting for that time, that person, that event when my life will finally begin.I love movies about “The Big Moment” – the game or the performance or the wedding day or the record deal, the stories that split time with that key event, and everything is reframed, before it and after it, because it has changed everything. I have always wanted this movie-worthy event, something that will change everything and grab me out of this waiting game into the whirlwind in front of me. I cry and cry at these movies, because I am still waiting for my own big moment. I had visions of life as an adventure, a thing to be celebrated and experienced, but all I was doing was going to work and coming home, and that wasn’t what it looked like in the movies.John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” For me, life is what was happening while I was busy waiting for my big moment. I was ready for it and believed that the rest of my life would fade into the background, and that my big moment would carry me through life like a lifeboat.The Big Moment, unfortunately, is an urban myth. Some people have them, in a sense, when they win the Heisman or become the next American Idol. But even that football player or that singer is living a life made up of more than that one moment. Life is a collection of a million, billion moments, tiny little moments and choices, like a handful of luminous, glowing pearl. It takes so much time, and so much work, and those beads and moments are so small, and so much less fabulous and dramatic than the movies.But this is what I’m finding, in glimpses and flashes: this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I’m waiting for, that adventure, that move-score-worthy experience unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets – this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of use will ever experience.” - Shauna Niequist

5. “believe that this way of living, this focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, this intense concentration not on the news headlines but on the flowers growing in your own garden, the children growing in your own home, this way of living has the potential to open up the heavens, to yield a glittering handful of diamonds where a second ago there was coal. This way of living and noticing and building and crafting can crack through the movie sets and soundtracks that keep us waiting for our own life stories to begin, and set us free to observe the lives we have been creating all along without ever realizing it.I don’t want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.The Heisman Trophy winner knows this. He knows that his big moment was not when they gave him the trophy. It was the thousand times he went to practice instead of going back to bed. It was the miles run on rainy days, the healthy meals when a burger sounded like heaven. That big moment represented and rested on a foundation of moments that had come before it.I believe that if we cultivate a true attention, a deep ability to see what has been there all along, we will find worlds within us and between us, dreams and stories and memories spilling over. The nuances and shades and secrets and intimations of love and friendship and marriage an parenting are action-packed and multicolored, if you know where to look.Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is.You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural. You are more than dust and bones.You are spirit and power and image of God.And you have been given Today.” - Shauna Niequist

6. “It's hard being left behind. (...) It's hard to be the one who stays.” - Audrey Niffenegger

7. “Is that why you've been pushing me away? Because of how you look? [...] I waited for you my whole life. Yearned for you my whole life. After Tersa told me you were coming, I spent seven hundred years searching for you[....] I never gave a damn what you looked like--tall, short, fat, thin, plain, beautiful, ugly. Why would I care about what you looked like? The flesh was the shell that housed the glory[....] Even if I couldn't be your physical lover, there are other ways to be a lover and I know them all. So don't stand there and tell me how you feel depends on how you look!” - Anne Bishop

8. “He was still immersed in the dim, wet wonder of the folded wings that might open if someone loved him; he still hoped, probably, in a butterfly's unthinking way, for spring and warmth. How the wings ache, folded so, waiting; that is, they ache until they atrophy.” - Harold Brodkey

9. “Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience - waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking.” - Gary Paulsen

10. “I never knew I never knew that everything was falling through That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue To turn and run when all I needed was the truth But that's how it's got to be It's coming down to nothing more than apathy I'd rather run the other way than stay and see The smoke and who's still standing when it clears Everyone knows I'm in Over my headOver my head With eight seconds left in overtime She's on your mindShe's on your mind Let's rearrange I wish you were a stranger I could disengage Just say that we agree and then never change Soften a bit until we all just get along But that's disregard Find another friend and you discard As you lose the argument in a cable car Hanging above as the canyon comes between Everyone knows I'm in Over my headOver my head With eight seconds left in overtime She's on your mindShe's on your mind Everyone knows I'm in Over my headOver my head With eight seconds left in overtime She's on your mind She's on your ... And suddenly I become a part of your past I'm becoming the part that don't last I'm losing you and its effortless Without a sound we lose sight of the ground In the throw around Never thought that you wanted to bring it down I won't let it go down till we torch it ourselves And everyone knows I'm in Over my headOver my head With eight seconds left in overtime She's on your mindShe's on your mind Everyone knows She's on your mind Everyone knows I'm in over my head I'm in over my head I'm over my... Everyone knows I'm in Over my headOver my head With eight seconds left in overtime She's on your mindShe's on your mind.” - The Fray

11. “Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts.” - Elizabeth Elliot

12. “Standing on a street corner waiting for no one is power.” - Gregory Corso

13. “There was nothing new in sitting on this dock, on this or that wooden bench, watching for his boat to come. In some ways, she was always waiting for him.” - Ann Brashares

14. “There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison” - Jane Austen

15. “Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.” - J.I. Packer

16. “We will wait. We will wait till all is made righteous (glorious) according to the word of God.” - John Piper

17. “The wait is long, my dream of you does not end.” - Nuala O'Faolain

18. “When you chose to follow the way of purity, did you expect it to be easy? When you decided to wait for the best, did you think that waiting would be fun? Did you think that your faith would not be tested? When you decided to take the narrow path, did no one warn you that difficulties, hardship, and tears would be part of the journey, and that you would often face rejection from others and be forced to walk alone? My daughter, that which you wait for the longest you treasure the most, and through much struggle the prize is won.” - Sarah Mally

19. “I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.” - E. V. Lucas

20. “[...] wszystko, co budzi zachwyt wywołany wiecznym zbliżaniem się do celu, czeka zagłada.” - Vladimir Nabokov

21. “The more Susan waited, the more the doorbell didn't ring. Or the phone.” - Douglas Adams

22. “After you find out all the things that can go wrong, your life becomes less about living and more about waiting.” - Chuck Palahniuk

23. “There are words in the soul of a newborn baby, wanting and waiting to be written.” - Toba Beta [Betelgeuse Incident]

24. “We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” - Voltaire

25. “...sitting and waiting is one of the most miserable occupations known to man - not that it usually is known to men; women do it much more often.” - Diana Gabaldon

26. “I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.” - Elisabeth Elliot

27. “The next visit I paid to Nancy Brown was in the second week in March: for, though I had many spare minutes during the day, I seldom could look upon an hour as entirely my own; since, when everything was left to the caprices of Miss Matilda and her sister, there could be no order or regularity. Whatever occupation I chose, when not actually busied about them or their concerns, I had, as it were, to keep my loins girded, my shoes on my feet, and my staff in my hand; for not to be immediately forthcoming when called for, was regarded as a grave and inexcusable offence: not only by my pupils and their mother, but by the very servant, who came in breathless haste to call me, exclaiming 'You're to go to the school-room directly, mum- the young ladies is WAITING!!' Climax of horror! actually waiting for their governess!!!” - Anne Brontë

28. “I'm hungry for a juicy life. I lean out my window at night and I can taste it out there, just waiting for me.” - Brigid Lowry

29. “Waiting's exhausting.” - Toba Beta

30. “If I die, I will wait for you, do you understand? No matter how long. I will watch from beyond to make sure you live every year you have to its fullest, and then we’ll have so much to talk about when I see you again… (Bones)” - Jeaniene Frost

31. “In contravention of my belief that any life ending in death is essentially pointless, I needed my friends to open up that plastic bag and take one last look at me. Someone had to remember me, if only for a few more minutes in the vast silent waiting room of time.” - Gary Shteyngart

32. “I don't care how wonderful heaven is, I won't be content waiting thirty years for you.” - Jason F. Wright

33. “Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, ifhe is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.” - Hermann Hesse

34. “Desperate prayers may be an indication of spiritual health rather than a sign of spiritual deficiency.” - Jeff Manion

35. “The common man prays, 'I want a cookie right now!' And God responds, 'If you'd listen to what I say, tomorrow it will bring you 100 cookies.” - Criss Jami

36. “He tried to tell me week after week to accept things as they were and move on with my life. But if there was one man who had put his life on hold to wait for something or someone, it was him.” - Cecelia Ahern

37. “The Indian danced on alone. The crowd clapped up the beat. The Indian danced with a chair. The crowd went crazy. The band faded. The crowd cheered. The Indian held up his hands for silence as if to make a speech. Looking at the band and then the crowd, the Indian said, "Well, what're you waiting for? Let's DANCE.” - Robert Fulghum

38. “When I was little and running on the race track at school, I always stopped and waited for all the other kids so we could run together even though I knew (and everybody else knew) that I could run much faster than all of them! I pretended to read slowly so I could "wait" for everyone else who couldn't read as fast as I could! When my friends were short I pretended that I was short too and if my friend was sad I pretended to be unhappy. I could go on and on about all the ways I have limited myself, my whole life, by "waiting" for people. And the only thing that I've ever received in return is people thinking that they are faster than me, people thinking that they can make me feel bad about myself just because I let them and people thinking that I have to do whatever they say I should do. My mother used to teach me "Cinderella is a perfect example to be" but I have learned that Cinderella can go fuck herself, I'm not waiting for anybody, anymore! I'm going to run as fast as I can, fly as high as I can, I am going to soar and if you want you can come with me! But I'm not waiting for you anymore.” - C. JoyBell C.

39. “I want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most. I don't know if doing that would heal me or make my heart break entirely, but either way this constant hungry waiting would be over.” - Ally Condie

40. “Even a snail will eventually reach its destination.” - Gail Tsukiyama

41. “Waiting turns men into bears in a barn, and women into cats in a sack.” - Robert Jordan

42. “The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways–and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection.” - Paulo Coelho

43. “I want no blood from you--not until we're both sweaty and naked and you're screaming my name.” - Nalini Singh

44. “The smile upon my lips, 
It will surely never die 
As I'm waiting here for you 
until you're by my side.” - Freida Martinez

45. “Deep under our feet the Earth holds its molten breath, while the bones of countless generations watch us and wait.” - Isaac Marion

46. “So much of control is not authoritative action but mindful waiting.” - Cameron Conaway

47. “So it comes to this: I would have lost her either way. If Cole hadn't reinfected her, I would have lost her in the hospital bed. And now Cole's wolf tozin pumps through her veins, and I lose her to the woods, like I lose everything I love.So here is me, and I am a boy watched--by her parents' suspicious eyes, since they cannot prove that I kidnapped Grace but believe nonetheless--and I am a boy watchful--because Tom Culpeper's bitterness is growing palpable in this tiny town and I will NOT bury Grace's body--and I am a boy waiting--for the heat and the fruitfulness of summer, waiting to see who will walk out of those woods for me. Waiting for my lovely summer girl.” - Maggie Stiefvater

48. “Everything comes to him who waits, except a loaned book.” - Kin Hubbard

49. “...as if the world had become a giant train station in which everything was delayed until further notice.” - Ann Patchett

50. “If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured, it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won, or lasting happiness achieved.” - Maurice Chevalier

51. “There’s another story I know. This one doesn’t have any swords or visions. This one is about a boy who found a girl during a terrible time.” “How did it turn out?” “I don’t know, but I do know the boy doesn’t regret it. Not a minute. No matter how it turns out. Because he’s been waiting for this girl from the time she was born, and if it takes another thousand years to meet her again, he’d wait again. Whatever it takes.” - Priya Ardis

52. “Așteptarea ne dă iluzia că facem ceva așteptând, când, de fapt, nu facem altceva decât să murim suportabil, puțin câte puțin…” - Octavian Paler

53. “For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place just for her, like a "Reserved" sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure I'd never see her again.” - Haruki Murakami

54. “Instead,she's as stillas a leaf-littered pond,dark water evaporating,waiting desperately for rain.” - Emma Cameron

55. “Do you love me?’ he asked instead. ‘Because if you don’t, I’d wait until you did. I’d wait weeks and months and years.” - Melina Marchetta

56. “I think that love is stronger than habits or circumstances. I think it is possible to keep yourself for someone for a long time, and still remember why you were waiting when she comes at last.... I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me.” - Peter S. Beagle

57. “You don't get everything all at once. You wait.” - Elizabeth Berg

58. “Waiting does not exist in the experience of those who recognize the presence of love wherever they are.” - Alan Cohen

59. “Before the first before and after the last after, there is night waiting.” - Dejan Stojanovic

60. “Courage is more important than to be deceived by shallow victory waiting for a delayed defeat.” - Dejan Stojanovic

61. “The night is still waiting.” - Dejan Stojanovic

62. “Se è tardi a trovarmi, insisti, se non ci sono in un posto, cerca in un altro, perché io son fermo da qualche parte ad aspettare te.” - Walt Whitman

63. “Tides do what tides do–they turn.” - Derek Landy

64. “Q: When is the perfect time? A: Who can say, but probably somewhere between haste and delay - and it's usually most wise to start today.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

65. “Outside the seasons passed: sun, snow, spring green, October storms . . . was this a vision of my future? When would the shunning hero come, to set the clock if my life in motion again? Would he come some morning, or in the night? In April or December? This year? Next year? I shuddered. No, I wouldn't just sit and wait. I wanted to go out. Maybe there were new men out there, better men, men who'd just been waiting for me. Somewhere someone is always waiting for someone.” - Eva Heller

66. “Knowing someone isn't coming backdoesn't mean you ever stop waiting” - Toby Barlow

67. “I kissed him hard. The few people in the bar must have been thinking that all they were seeing was just a kiss. They didn't know that this kiss stood for my whole life - and his life, as well. The life of anyone who has waited, dreamed, and searched for their true path.The moment of that kiss contained every happy moment I had ever lived.” - Paulo Coelho

68. “The thing was, if I had found a way to escape- even for just a little while- I knew the pain would be there waiting for me when I got back.” - Neal Shusterman

69. “But an intelligent man like you would know that to live in an unrealistic hope is a very foolish way to spend a life." - Lena Gray” - Maeve Binchy

70. “Policeman says, "Son you can't stay here"I said, "There's someone I'm waiting for if it's a day, a month, a year"Gotta stand my ground even if it rains or snowsIf she changes her mind this is the first place she will go” - The Script

71. “I thought I loved him when he went away; I love him now in another degree: he is more my own. [ . . . ] Oh! a thousand weepers, praying in agony on waiting shores, listened for that voice, but it was not uttered--not uttered till; when the hush came, some could not feel it: till, when the sun returned, his light was night to some!” - Charlotte Brontë

72. “You remember how he used to be girl on either arm? You really don't see that guy too much anymore. Why do you think that is? He's waiting for you. I know you're dealing with stuff but you cannot ask him to wait forever! Unless of course, you're okay with him pulling away.""What if it doesn't work out? What if it ends up like you and Javier?""Well at least we gave it a shot. And so it didn't work out, so what? Now, we can move on give or take the occasional booty call.""I just don't wanna lose what we have, you know?""Girl please! What exactly do you have, really?""A friendship.""No. What you and I have is a friendship. What you and castle have is a holding pattern. How long can you circle before the fuel runs out?” - Richard Castle

73. “A minute or so passed by--not long, but long enough to make me wonder whether Oliver was setting up mood lighting or hiding dead bodies. Or if someone was up there waiting to stab me again. Or if someone was up there waiting to hand me a crown and tell me I was the long-lost princess of Genovia. Or if I'd tumble into a pit of lava, only to get saved at the last second by a flying carpet.” - Lindsay Ribar

74. “When I awake thinking of dreams I slept on, I often wonder, if the dreams ever wake up thinking of me?” - Anthony Liccione

75. “I'll be here when you get back.” - Ally Carter