Key takeaways
- The best patience quotes come from writers who tied patience to action: Tolstoy's general waiting out an army, Epictetus on the fig tree, Franklin on the mouse and the cable.
- Tolstoy's famous "patience and time" line is real. In the Maude translation of War and Peace it reads "there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time."
- "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet" is credited to both Aristotle and Rousseau. The closest ancient source is a saying about education, not patience.
- Shakespeare's best line on patience is spoken by Iago, the villain of Othello.
- Every quote below gives its source, with book, chapter or scene where the text has them, and names the translator where there is one.
Patience quotes have a reputation for being soft. Most of the lines that circulate are about waiting quietly and trusting the universe. The writers who actually built the idea meant something tougher: holding a position under pressure, refusing to force a result before it is ready, and continuing to work while nothing visible happens.
This list keeps the lines that trace to a real text, in the wording of a named public-domain translation where one is needed. For Tolstoy, that is the Aylmer Maude translation of War and Peace, freely available through Project Gutenberg.
What are the best patience quotes with a real source?
The strongest ones treat patience as a strategy rather than a mood. These are checked against the source texts.
"There is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time, they will do it all." (Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book Ten, chapter XVI, Maude translation)
"Patience and time are my warriors, my champions." (War and Peace, Book Thirteen, chapter XVII, Maude translation)
"Nothing great, said Epictetus, is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is." (Epictetus, Discourses, Book I, chapter 15, George Long translation)
"He that can have Patience, can have what he will." (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard, 1736)
"By Diligence and Patience the Mouse ate in two the Cable." (Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth, 1758)
"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" (William Shakespeare, Othello, Act 2, Scene 3)
"Adopt the pace of Nature. Her secret is patience." (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Education, in Lectures and Biographical Sketches)
"They also serve who only stand and waite." (John Milton, sonnet beginning "When I consider how my light is spent")
"Learn to labor and to wait." (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life)
"The greatest remedy for anger is delay." (Seneca, On Anger, Book II, chapter XXIX, Aubrey Stewart translation)
"To endure is a part of justice." (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV, George Long translation)
Two of these lines come from poets who knew what waiting costs. Milton wrote his sonnet after losing his sight, afraid that the one talent he had was now "lodg'd with me useless," and lets Patience answer that faithful waiting is also a kind of service. Longfellow ends A Psalm of Life on the opposite note: be up and doing, "still achieving, still pursuing," and only then "learn to labor and to wait."
What did Tolstoy actually say about patience and time?
He put it in the mouth of Kutuzov, the old Russian commander of 1812, whom Tolstoy later calls a procrastinator "whose motto was 'Patience and Time.'" In Book Ten, Kutuzov tells Prince Andrew that taking a fortress is easy but winning a campaign takes patience and time, not storming: "believe me, my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time, they will do it all."
In the same scene he quotes a French proverb, which Maude translates in a footnote as "Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait." Three books later, after the battle of Tarutino, Tolstoy returns to the idea in Kutuzov's own thoughts: "Patience and time are my warriors, my champions." He knew, Tolstoy adds, that an apple should not be plucked while it is green.
The version most quote sites print, "The strongest of all warriors are these two, time and patience," does not match the Maude wording. It reads like a looser rendering of the same passage, so if you print it, credit the translator you are actually quoting.
What did the Stoics say about patience?
They said growth cannot be rushed, and neither should a reaction. Epictetus gives the clearest image in Book I of the Discourses. A man asks how to keep his composure while his brother stays angry with him, and Epictetus answers that nothing great is produced suddenly, "since not even the grape or the fig is." If you want a fig, he says, it requires time: "let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen." The text is free from MIT's Internet Classics Archive.
Seneca applies patience to temper. In On Anger he writes that "the greatest remedy for anger is delay," because a first impulse is fierce and fades if you refuse to act on it. Marcus Aurelius, irritated with other people in Book IV, reminds himself "that to endure is a part of justice." For more of their lines, see Epictetus quotes with their sources and the wider set of Stoic quotes checked against the texts.
Why is Shakespeare's best patience quote spoken by a villain?
Because Iago is the most patient person in Othello, and the play wants you to notice it. In Act 2, Scene 3, Roderigo complains that he has been beaten and his money is almost spent. Iago answers: "How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"
The next lines give the game away: "Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft; And wit depends on dilatory time." He is not praising patience as a virtue. He is explaining how a slow plan beats a fast one. You can read the scene in full at MIT's complete works of Shakespeare.
That does not spoil the line for a wall. It just makes it more honest. Patience is a method, and a method works for whoever uses it.
Who said "patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet"?
No one can be shown to have said it in those words. It is credited to Aristotle on most quote sites and to Jean-Jacques Rousseau on others. It does not appear in the Barbara Foxley translation of Emile, Rousseau's long treatise on education.
The closest ancient source is a saying that Diogenes Laertius, in his life of Aristotle, credits to the philosopher in the C. D. Yonge translation: "the roots of education were bitter, but the fruit sweet." The structure is the same, bitter root and sweet fruit, but the subject is education. The patience version looks like a later adaptation.
A similar thing happened to Lao Tzu. The popular line naming "simplicity, patience, compassion" as his three treasures does not match James Legge's public-domain translation of chapter 67, which names them as gentleness, economy, and "shrinking from taking precedence of others."
How do popular patience quotes compare with the sources?
Some are faithful, some are reworded, and a few have moved to a different author entirely.
| Quote as shared | Source | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| "The strongest of all warriors are these two, time and patience" | Tolstoy, reworded | Maude: "there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time" |
| "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet" | Untraced as worded | Closest: Aristotle on education, in Diogenes Laertius |
| "No great thing is created suddenly" | Epictetus, modern wording | Long: "Nothing great ... is produced suddenly" |
| "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience" | Emerson, faithful | His lecture Education |
| "Simplicity, patience, compassion" | Lao Tzu, reworded | Legge, chapter 67: gentleness, economy, not putting oneself first |
How do you practice patience without just waiting?
Most of the writers on this list describe patience as active. Their advice reduces to a few habits.
- Keep working while the result is out of view. Longfellow's line pairs the two on purpose: labor and wait.
- Delay your reaction, not your effort. Seneca's cure for anger is a pause, not a retreat.
- Measure progress in seasons, the way Epictetus measures the fig.
- Let small, repeated actions add up. Franklin's mouse gets through the cable one bite at a time.
- Refuse the fight that someone else wants on their timeline, as Kutuzov does.
Which patience quotes work on a wall?
The short ones with an image in them. "Patience and time" is three words and carries a whole war behind it. Franklin's mouse and cable is a picture you can see. Emerson's "her secret is patience" works beside a landscape, because the landscape is the argument.
Patience also translates well into imagery without text: a seed beside a grown tree, a mountain under a slow night sky, a sunset that only lasts if you wait for it. Our own Seed Of Patience canvas carries the Epictetus line in its modern form, "No great thing is created suddenly," which is a fair rendering of the Long passage above. The range sits in the motivational wall art collection.
Featured patience pieces
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous quote about patience?
Tolstoy's line about patience and time is among the best known. In the Maude translation of War and Peace, Kutuzov says "there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time, they will do it all." The common "strongest of all warriors" wording is a looser rendering.
Did Aristotle say "patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet"?
Not in that form. Diogenes Laertius records Aristotle saying that "the roots of education were bitter, but the fruit sweet." The patience version appears to be a later adaptation, and it is also credited to Rousseau without a clear source.
What does "they also serve who only stand and wait" mean?
It is the last line of Milton's sonnet about losing his sight. Fearing he can no longer serve God because he cannot see to work, he answers himself through Patience: faithful waiting is also a form of service.
What did Benjamin Franklin say about patience?
In Poor Richard for 1736 he wrote "He that can have Patience, can have what he will." In The Way to Wealth of 1758 he added an image: "by Diligence and Patience the Mouse ate in two the Cable."
What is a short quote about patience?
Emerson's "Her secret is patience," about nature, is four words. Longfellow's "Learn to labor and to wait," from A Psalm of Life, is six, and has the advantage of pairing patience with effort.
