84 Patience Quotes To Inspire

In our fast-paced world, patience is often an underrated virtue. Whether you’re facing a challenging project at work, waiting for personal growth, or navigating the complexities of relationships, the ability to remain calm and composed is invaluable. To help you cultivate this essential quality, we’ve curated a collection of the top 84 patience quotes—each one offering a unique perspective and inspiration. Dive into this treasure trove of wisdom and let the words of thinkers, leaders, and authors guide you towards greater resilience and serenity.

1. “He that can have patience can have what he will.” - Benjamin Franklin

2. “A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.” - Henri J.M. Nouwen

3. “I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer. Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.” - Anne Lamott

4. “Everybody going to be dead one day, just give them time.” - Neil Gaiman

5. “Patience never wants Wonder to enter the house: because Wonder is a wretched guest. It uses all of you but is not careful with what is most fragile or irreplaceable. If it breaks you, it shrugs and moves on. Without asking, Wonder often brings along dubious friends: doubt, jealousy, greed. Together they take over; rearrange the furniture in every one of your rooms for their own comfort. They speak odd languages but make no attempt to translate for you. They cook strange meals in your heart that leave odd tastes and smells. When they finally go are you happy or miserable? Patience is always left holding the broom.” - Jonathan Carroll

6. “The best teachers have showed me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly--we only think it does. The motion of drawing back a bow and sending an arrow straight into a target takes only a split second, but it is a skill many years in the making. So it is with a life, anyone's life. I may list things that might be described as my accomplishments in these few pages, but they are only shadows of the larger truth, fragments separated from the whole cycle of becoming. And if I can tell an old-time story now about a man who is walking about, waudjoset ndatlokugan, a forest lodge man, alesakamigwi udlagwedewugan, it is because I spent many years walking about myself, listening to voices that came not just from the people but from animals and trees and stones.” - Joseph Bruchac

7. “Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess:Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity.Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples' affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou knowest, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends.Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.I will not ask thee for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong.Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint -- it is so hard to live with some of them -- but a harsh old person is one of the devil's masterpieces.Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so.Amen” - Anonymous

8. “She was always waiting, it seemed to be her forte.” - D.H. Lawrence

9. “Waiting and hoping is a hard thing to do when you've already been waiting and hoping for almost as long as you can bear it.” - Jenny Nimmo

10. “The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” - Paulo Coelho

11. “Inner peace is impossible without patience. Wisdom requires patience. Spiritual growth implies the mastery of patience. Patience allows the unfolding of destiny to proceed at its won unhurried pace.” - Brian Weiss

12. “We repeatedly tell patients we are not in a hurry; there are no trains to catch and we don't care when the baby comes, only how! A doctor who is in a hurry does not belong in the field of obstetrics. As my chief pointed out, 'An obstetrician should have a big rear end and the good sense to sit calmly thereupon and let nature take its course.” - Robert A. Bradley

13. “No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.” - Lewis Carroll

14. “Think of the patience God has had for you and let it resonate to others. If you want a more patient world, let patience be your motto” - Steve Maraboli

15. “Well, we must wait for the future to show.” - Virginia Woolf

16. “Other people can’t cause us to be impatient unless we let them do so. In other words, others don’t make us impatient. We make ourselves impatient, through our expectations and demands, fixated attachments and stuckness.” - Lama Surya Das

17. “Patience is a virtue Savannah, to tolerate delay. It implies self control and forbearance, as opposed to wanting what we want when we want it. Something to think about. . .Catherine Weaver (Character), "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” - Catherine Weaver

18. “Miro, I'm so sorry. I always felt such pity for you humans because you could only think of one thing at a time and your memories were so imperfect and . . . now I realize that just getting through the day without killing somebody can be an achievement."It gets to be a habit. Most of us manage to keep our body count quite low. It's the neighborly way to live.” - Orson Scott Card

19. “I’m saying that I can wait. For now. But when things get back to normal—assuming that ever happens—I want my shot. We can make each other happy, Faythe. I know it. And I’m done walking away from things I want just because they don’t come easily. You’re worth the work.” - Rachel Vincent

20. “Patience is a fruit of the spirit that grows only under trial. It is useless to pray for patience. Well, actually I encourage you to pray for patience, but I'll tell you what you'll get TRIALS!” - Joyce Meyer

21. “Put up in a placewhere it is easy to seethe cryptic admonishmentT.T.TWhen you feel how depressinglyslowly you climbit's well to remember thatThings Take Time.” - Piet Hein

22. “Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams.” - Ray A. Davis

23. “Your least favorite virtue, or nominee for the most overrated one? Faith. Closely followed—in view of the overall shortage of time—by patience.” - Christopher Hitchens

24. “Regarding vengeance and arch-enemies, one must not only be timely but prideful, and pride exacts propriety.” - Adam Levin

25. “It is very strange that the years teach us patience - that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.” - Elizabeth Taylor

26. “The word 'jihad' has nowhere been used in the Qur'an to mean war in the sense of launching an offensive. It is used rather to mean 'struggle'. the action most consistently called for in the Qur'an is the exercise of patience. (p. 7-8)” - Wahiduddin Khan

27. “I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

28. “Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” - Molière

29. “The first lesson to learn is to resign oneself to the little difficulties in life, not to hit out at everything one comes up against. If one were able to manage this one would not need to cultivate great power; even one's presence would be healing.” - Hazrat Inayat Khan

30. “He who can have patience can have what he will.” - Benjamin Franklin

31. “A stumble may prevent a fall.” - Thomas Fuller

32. “An alternative to love is not hate but patience.” - Santosh Kalwar

33. “Patience gives your spouse permission to be human. It understands that everyone fails. When a mistake is made, it chooses to give them more time that they deserve to correct it. It gives you the ability to hold on during the rough times in your relationship rather than bailing out under the pressure.” - Stephen Kendrick

34. “She and Marie were Montreal girls, not trained to accompany heroes, or to hold out for dreams, but just to be patient.” - Mavis Gallant

35. “Perfect love is perfectly patient.” - Neal A. Maxwell

36. “God, teach me to be patient, teach me to go slow,Teach me how to wait on You when my way I do not know.Teach me sweet forbearance when things do not go rightSo I remain unruffled when others grow uptight.Teach me how to quiet my racing, rising heartSo I might hear the answer You are trying to impart.Teach me to let go, dear God, and pray undisturbed untilMy heart is filled with inner peace and I learn to know your will.” - Helen Steiner Rice

37. “There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room, and to have a discussion coolly waived when you feel that justice is all on your own side is even more exasperating in marriage than in philosophy.” - George Eliot

38. “Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.” - Helen Keller

39. “The years I have squandered in puerile excitement, in going hither and thither, in seeking to force nature and time, I ought to have spent in solitude and meditation, in endeavoring to make myself worthy of being loved.” - Théophile Gautier

40. “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” - Arnold H. Glasgow

41. “The woman gestured to a seat and put on a patient face. An impatient sort of patient face, like an impatient face dressing up as a patient one for Halloween.” - Shannon Hale

42. “The panic disappeared under those soothing old fingers and the breathing slowed down and stopped hurting the chest as if a fox was caught in it, and then at last Mr. Kroger began to lecture the boy as he used to, Pablo, he murmured, don't ever be so afraid of being lonely that you forget to be careful. Don't forget that you will find it sometimes but other times you won't be lucky, and those are the times when you have got to be patient, since patience is what you must have when you don't have luck. ("The Mysteries of the Joy Rio")” - Tennessee Williams

43. “Tell me what’s the differencebetween hope and waitingbecause my heart doesn’t knowIt constantly cuts itself on the glass of waitingIt constantly gets lost in the fog of hope” - Anna Kamienska

44. “One who is patient glows with an inner radiance.” - Allan Lokos

45. “And sure enough, even waiting will end...if you can just wait long enough.” - William Faulkner

46. “Wise men are not pacifists; they are merely less likely to jump up and retaliate against their antagonizers. They know that needless antagonizers are virtually already insecure enough.” - Criss Jami

47. “Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.” - Criss Jami

48. “We must accept the reality that the causes of impatience travel a two-way street.” - Allan Lokos

49. “Knowing trees, I came to realize, understand and appreciate the act of patience.” - Ogwo David Emenike

50. “Patience and persistence are the keys... The keys to unlock doors of success... With these two virtues, you grow in reasoning and experience.” - Ogwo David Emenike

51. “Be patient. Your skin took a while to deteriorate. Give it some time to reflect a calmer inner state. As one of my friends states on his Facebook profile: "The true Losers in Life, are not those who Try and Fail, but those who Fail to Try.” - Jess C. Scott

52. “Be worthy love, and love will come.” - Louisa May Alcott

53. “I have seen what comes of being patient," Amanda said with a boding look. "And I have no opinion of it.""What does come of it?" Inquired Sir Gareth."Nothing!” - Georgette Heyer

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

55. “No beating yourself up. That’s not allowed. Be patient with yourself. It took you years to form the bad habits of thought that you no longer want. It will take a littletime to form new and better ones. But I promise you this: Even a slight move in this direction will bring you some peace. The more effort you apply to it, the faster you’ll find your bliss, but you’ll experience rewards immediately.” - Holly Mosier

56. “Aura, I'm really patient, but I'm not a bloody saint.” - Jeri Smith-Ready

57. “When you get mad, it's the time you lose” - Hiroko Sakai

58. “It almost seems as though this roiling world is conspiring to test our patience at every turn. In fact, it is. With this in mind, we would be wise to look on our imperfect environment as a teacher rather than an antagonist. It constantly shows us that we need to be patient on an ongoing basis, not just every now and then, if we´re going to realize true inner peace, happiness, and fulfillment.” - Lama Surya Das

59. “Sometimes one waits too long for the perfect moment before snapping the picture. You never realize that you needed was to change perspective.” - Miguel Syjuco

60. “Patience, increasing patience,Is all we needTo be victoriousIn the battlefield of life.” - Sri Chinmoy

61. “It's easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.” - George Eliot

62. “Brazen it out! Throw away the scabbard! Grit your teeth, buckle down, and die with your boots on! Or in other words, be determined and resolved until you accomplish the thing you set out to accomplish.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

63. “Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” - Leo Tolstoy

64. “ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial.” - Louisa May Alcott

65. “There is something hugely civilised about allowing long pauses in a conversation. Very few people can stand that kind of silence.” - James Robertson

66. “For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. – Bill W.” - Bill W.

67. “And St. Francis said: 'My dear son, be patient, because the weaknesses of the body are given to us in this world by God for the salvation of the soul. So they are of great merit when they are borne patiently.” - St. Francis Of Assisi

68. “Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time.” - Habeeb Akande

69. “Don’t let mental blocks control you. Set yourself free. Confront your fear and turn the mental blocks into building blocks.” - Dr Roopleen

70. “Tempus Fugit” - Dan Brown

71. “...when people oppose your view, you can become a lightning rod, but if I were you, I'd let them stew...” - John Geddes

72. “You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely his, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to “clear the numberless ascensions”* in about two minutes.” - Oswald Chambers

73. “sometimes is good to be in patience, it can be mean understand, sometimes patience can describe as sacrifice , but everytime it hurting ourself” - Tun Teja

74. “Now there are many, many people in the world, but relatively few with whom we interact, and even fewer who cause us problems. So when you come across such a chance for practicing patience and tolerance, you should treat it with gratitude. It is rare. Just as having unexpectedly found a treasure in your own house, you should be happy and grateful toward your enemy for providing you that precious opportunity. Because if you are ever to be successful in your practice of patience and tolerance, which are critical factors in counteracting negative emotions, it is due to your own efforts and also the opportunity provided by your enemy.” - The Dalai Lama

75. “Grant me the wisdom to know when to keep trying and when to stop wasting time, the patience to keep going with the 1st, and the courage & serenity to let go of the 2nd.” - jay woodman

76. “The spider's web: She finds an innocuous corner in which to spin her web. The longer the web takes, the more fabulous its construction. She has no need to chase. She sits quietly, her patience a consummate force; she waits for her prey to come to her on their own, and then she ensnares them, injects them with venom, rendering them unable to escape. Spiders – so needed and yet so misunderstood.” - Donna Lynn Hope

77. “Happiness, honor, and great estate,For those who patiently work and wait.” - J.T. Trowbridge

78. “Annihilate the enemy with acts of kindness only you can afford.” - Suzanne Stroh

79. “Ive told you before and my feelings haven't changed. I love you Sakura. Even if I cant match up to Natsume, my feelings would not lose to his. Even if we part ways and you forget about me, I will always think of you. Even if I grow old and leave this academy, I will definitely come see you. I'm here for you, until the day you look my way, I will always... I will always wait for you, together with Natsume. And this time around, I wont let Natsume steal you away again. Next time we meet, I will be more straight forward with my feelings, so that this time around, it wont be Natsume, but me you will choose, and me you will love. I wont lose, definitely." - Ruka” - Tachibana Higuchi

80. “Simplify and focus on the good. The beauty of the journey ahead will flourish on its own.” - Erik Tomblin

81. “He will unfailingly be pleased with our patience and take note of our diligence and perseverance.” - St. Francis de Sales

82. “If we walk steadily and faithfully...God will lift us up to greater things.” - St. Francis de Sales

83. “Be patient and one day you will be in Heaven, where there will be only peace and joy ... You will possess an enduring tranquility and rest.” - St. Francis de Sales

84. “Real patience is not the same as waiting impatiently for something for a long time. Patience is having patience with patience.” - H.M. Forester