Patience is important for anyone who is interested in self-improvement and self-actualization. Not only will one encounter setbacks, but the progress will almost certainly be slow going, measured in months and years rather than days and weeks. Patience is the thing that will help you to keep your head down, knowing that the slow progress will pay off over time.

Having patience with our own progress is a form of inner strength that allows us to achieve our goals. When things seem to be moving slowly, we must keep at them because they are moving.

But patience is not simply about being patient with ourselves and our progress. It is also about being patient with others. Influencing others often requires great patience on our part, explaining the same things again and again until the ideas germinate and begin making sense.

Wisdom, solid planning and inner strength… all of these are nothing without the patience to ensure their exercise and implementation.

There are very few successful people who are not also patient people. Even those who are not patient by nature must learn how to cultivate this quality in themselves if they wish to succeed.

The quotes below underscore the importance and the power of patience.

Quotes About Patience With Yourself

 

Bruce Lee quote on patience

 

“Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength.”

– Bruce Lee

 

William Faulkner quote on patience

 

“And sure enough, even waiting will end…if you can just wait long enough.”

– William Faulkner

 

Mae West quote on patience

 

“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”

– Mae West

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on patience

 

“Patience and fortitude conquer all things.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Leo Tolstoy quote on patience

 

“Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait…there is nothing stronger than these two: patience and time, they will do it all.”

– Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

 

James P. Carse quote on patience

 

“Gardening is not outcome-oriented. A successful harvest is not the end of a gardener’s existence, but only a phase of it. As any gardener knows, the vitality of a garden does not end with a harvest. It simply takes another form. Gardens do not ‘die’ in the winter but quietly prepare for another season.”

– James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

 

Moliere quote on patience

 

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

– Moliere

 

Francis de Sales quote on patience

 

“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

What is anything in life compared to peace of soul?”

– Francis de Sales

 

Elizabeth Taylor quote on patience

 

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

– Elizabeth Taylor

 

Edmund Burke quote on patience

 

“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

– Edmund Burke

 

Franz Kafka quote on patience

 

“All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue.”

– Franz Kafka

Quotes About Patience With Others

 

 

Saint Augustine quote on patience

 

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”

– Saint Augustine

 

Friedrich Nietzsche quote on patience

 

“In the end we are always rewarded for our good will, our patience, fair-mindedness, and gentleness with what is strange.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

 

 

Charlotte Brontë qutoe on patience

 

“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you.”

– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

 

 

Benjamin Franklin quote on patience

 

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”

– Benjamin Franklin

 

Aristotle quote on patience

 

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

– Aristotle

 

Margaret Thatcher quotes on patience

 

“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.”

– Margaret Thatcher

 

Lao Tzu quotes on patience

 

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”

– Lao Tzu

 

Marcus Aurelius quote on patience

 

“All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.”

– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

 

Chinese proverb quote on patience

 

“One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.”

– Chinese proverb