Famous Patience Quotes in English with Images

Here’s a detailed list of famous patience quotes along with their meanings and practical examples to illustrate each one:


1. "Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting." – Joyce Meyer

  • Meaning: True patience isn’t just about waiting; it’s about staying calm, positive, and hopeful while waiting.

  • Example: If someone is working toward a promotion at work, instead of becoming frustrated by waiting, they maintain a positive attitude, continue to work hard, and improve their skills. This positivity while waiting is the real meaning of patience.


2. "Good things come to those who wait." – Proverb

  • Meaning: By waiting patiently, people often receive better outcomes or rewards in the long run.

  • Example: A student patiently studying for years to become a doctor may miss out on some activities but eventually achieves their dream career. This long-term goal is made possible by patience, showing that good things often take time.


3. "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." – Aristotle

  • Meaning: Being patient can feel hard or unpleasant, but the results are usually worthwhile.

  • Example: Imagine planting a garden. The work of digging, planting, and watering can be tiring and time-consuming. However, when flowers bloom or vegetables are ready to harvest, the rewards make the effort worthwhile.


4. "Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy." – Saadi

  • Meaning: Everything feels hard initially, but with patience and practice, things become easier and more manageable.

  • Example: When learning a new language, it may feel overwhelming at first. But with consistent practice over time, the words and grammar become familiar, and the skill becomes easier to use.


5. "Patience is the companion of wisdom." – St. Augustine

  • Meaning: Wise people recognize the importance of patience; they understand that good outcomes often require waiting.

  • Example: A wise person starting a business knows that success won’t happen overnight. They patiently build their business step-by-step, allowing it to grow over time rather than expecting immediate results.


6. "One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life." – Chinese Proverb

  • Meaning: A bit of patience can prevent serious problems, while a moment of impatience can lead to lasting consequences.

  • Example: In an argument, taking a moment to breathe and calm down before responding can prevent saying something hurtful that you might regret. This small act of patience can save relationships and avoid misunderstandings.


7. "Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday." – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

  • Meaning: Life flows naturally, and there’s no need to rush. Eventually, everything will fall into place.

  • Example: If someone is anxious about reaching life milestones—like owning a home or achieving career goals—they can take inspiration from a river’s steady flow, understanding that these achievements will come at the right time.


8. "He that can have patience can have what he will." – Benjamin Franklin

  • Meaning: Patience can help you achieve almost anything you want because it allows you to work persistently toward your goals.

  • Example: An inventor might spend years working on and testing their invention. By being patient and persistent, they eventually succeed and bring something valuable to the world.


9. "The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." – Leo Tolstoy

  • Meaning: Patience and time are essential for achieving long-term success and overcoming challenges.

  • Example: Recovering from an injury often requires a lot of patience and time. Someone who follows the slow recovery process, rather than rushing, will usually have a stronger and more stable recovery.


10. "Patience is a key element of success." – Bill Gates

  • Meaning: Patience is essential to reaching any kind of lasting success because it allows us to stay focused and committed over time.

  • Example: Building a successful company takes years of hard work and resilience. Bill Gates himself took decades to build Microsoft, demonstrating how patience plays a key role in achieving big goals.


Each of these quotes reinforces the importance of patience in achieving happiness, success, and peace. They show that while patience can feel challenging, it often leads to the best results.

Learn the art of patience.  Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal.  Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.

- Brian Adams Quotes

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

- Patience Quotes by Elizabeth Taylor

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For it you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

- Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.

- Quote by Isaac Newton

There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you.  When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self destruct.  It never fails.

- Richard Rybolt Quotes

There are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.

- Franz Kafka Quote

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

- Patience Quotes by Edmund Burke

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

- Patience Quotes by Edmund Burke

Patience is the greatest of all virtues.

- Patience Quotes by Cato the Elder

Patience is the greatest of all virtues.

- Patience Quotes by Cato the Elder

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

- Patience Quotes by Dutch Proverb

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

- Patience Quotes by Dutch Proverb

Patience has its limits.  Take it too far, and it's cowardice.

- Patience Quotes by George Jackson Download or Share

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.

- Helen Keller Quotes

The fates have given mankind a patient soul.

- Homer Quotes

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

- Margaret Thatcher Quotes

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

- Saint Augustine Quotes

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.  Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.

- Saint Francis de Sales Quotes

You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.

- Stanislaw J. Lec Quotes

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.

- Titus Maccius Plautus Quotes

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

- Victor Hugo Quotes

How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.

- William Shakespeare Quotes