Great Throughts Treasury

"Quiet and unacclaimed acts are, to me, the real margin of greatness. Greatness is not in popularity, wealth, or long life, as most people believe. Real greatness is in simplicity and supportive words. It is in firm encouragement and gentle patience. It is in finding god in the midst of the turmoil of the marketplace, and remembering His goodness during hardship. No, greatness is not always found in those whom the world calls its heroes, but in the unheard of saints who unselfishly serve their families, lend a kind ear to a friend in despair, and lovingly see the Best in those who have become too accustomed to seeing themselves as mediocre." -

"Quiet and unacclaimed acts are, to me, the real margin of greatness. Greatness is not in popularity, wealth, or long life, as most people believe. Real greatness is in simplicity and supportive words. It is in firm encouragement and gentle patience. It is in finding god in the midst of the turmoil of the marketplace, and remembering His goodness during hardship. No, greatness is not always found in those whom the world calls its heroes, but in the unheard of saints who unselfishly serve their families, lend a kind ear to a friend in despair, and lovingly see the Best in those who have become too accustomed to seeing themselves as mediocre." -

"Patience does not mean indifference. We may work and trust and wait, but we ought not to be idle or careless while waiting." - Alexander Hamilton

"Patience: A minor form of despair, disguised as virtue." - Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

"Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue." - Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

"I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born Anne Spencer Morrow

"I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born Anne Spencer Morrow

"The way of exoteric religion is to progressively replace egoism by submission to the will of God. Its four cardinal demands are faith, love, humility, and good deeds. In so far as they are complied with, they effectively bring a man towards Self-realization, even though he does not consciously envisage this. True, the Goal is not likely to be attained in this lifetime, but in God’s patience a lifetime is very little. Faith strengthens the intuitional conviction of the reality of God or the Self. Humility, its counterpart, weakens the belief in the ego and lessens the importance attached to it. Love strives to surrender the ego to God and its welfare to others. Good deeds deny egoism in practice and are alike the fruit and proof of love and humility." - Arthur W Osborn

"Affliction appears to be the guide to reflection; the teacher of humility; the parent of repentance; the nurse of faith; the strengthener of patience, and the promoter of charity." - Author Unknown NULL

"Greatest of human virtues is always patience." - Cato the Elder, Marcus Porius Cato, aka Censorius (the Censor), Sapiens (the Wise), Priscus (the Ancient) NULL

"Patience is the support of weakness; impatience is the ruin of strength." - Charles Caleb Colton

"Patience is sorrow's salve." - Charles Churchill

"Have charity; have patience; have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak - above all, any little child - to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste - never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer - crush what is finest and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature." -

"With love and patience, nothing is impossible." - Daisaku Ikeda

"In prosperity, caution; in adversity, patience." - Dutch Proverbs

"Our patience will achieve more than our force." - Edmund Burke

"Life hands us lessons, universal truths teaching us the basics about love, fear, time, power, loss, happiness, relationships, (guilt, anger, forgiveness, surrender, patience, play, loss) and authenticity. We are not unhappy today because of the complexities of life. We are unhappy because we miss its underlying simplicities." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"The key to patience is knowing that everything is going to be fine, developing the faith that there is a plan… The first step to becoming more patient is giving up the need to fix or change things." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"The mind wants to believe that changing our circumstances will bring us peace. The mind thinks we’ve got to do something. But the reality is that we can relax in the circumstances as they are now, knowing that deep patience will bring deep peace and healing." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor." - Eric Hoffer

"Whoever is out of patience is out of possession of his soul. Men must not turn into bees, and kill themselves in stinging others." - Francis Bacon

"He who has patience may accomplish anything." - François Rabelais

"Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet." - French Proverbs

"Patience, time, and money accommodate all things." - George Herbert

"The principal part of faith is patience." - George MacDonald

"It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness." - George Santayana

"There is no such thing as preaching patience into people unless the sermon is so long that they have to practice it while they hear. No man can learn patience except by going out into the hurly-burly world, and taking life just as it blows. Patience is but lying to and riding out the gale." - Henry Ward Beecher

"There is not a person we employ who does not, like ourselves, desire recognition, praise, gentleness, forbearance, patience." - Henry Ward Beecher

"There is no such thing as preaching patience into people, unless the sermon is so long that they have to practice it while they hear." - Henry Ward Beecher

"Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of Time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee." - Immanuel Kant

"Patience conquers destiny." - Irish Proverbs

"There is not a tree in heaven higher than the tree of patience." - Irish Proverbs

"Patience, time and money accommodate all things." - Italian Proverbs

"Patience is the support of weakness; impatience is the ruin of strength." - James Bryant Conant

"Sweetness of spirit and sunshine is famous for dispelling fears and difficulties; patience is a mighty help to the burden-bearer." - James Hamilton

"By patience and time we sever what strength and rage could never." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Want is a bitter and hateful good, because its virtues are not understood; yet many things, impossible to thought, have been by need to full perfection brought; the daring of the soul proceeds from thence, sharpness of wit and active diligence; prudence at once, and fortitude it gives; and, if in patience taken, mends our lives." - John Dryden

"Possess your soul with patience." - John Dryden

"Sense of pleasure we may well spare out of life perhaps, and not repine, but pain is perfect misery, the worst of evils, and excessive, overturns all patience." - John Milton

"Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty." - John Ruskin

"There's no music in "rest," but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody, always talking of perseverance and courage and fortitude; but patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude, and the rarest, too." - John Ruskin

"Our real blessings often appear to us in shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience, and we soon shall se them in their proper figures." - Joseph Addison

"Patience is a most necessary quality for business: many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request." - Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

"An absolute command of your temper, so as not to be provoked to passion, upon any account; patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications; with address enough to refuse, without offending, or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation; dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie; sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances; and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by your; a seeming frankness with a real reserve. There are the rudiments of a politician." - Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

"Twelve Things to Remember: The value of time. The success of perseverance. The pleasure of working. The dignity of simplicity. The worth of character. The power of kindness. The influence of example. The obligation of duty. The wisdom of economy. The virtue of patience. The improvement of talent. The joy of originating." - Marshall Field

"Sentiment and nobility and love are immortal... Tenderness and loyalty, and patience, and self-sacrifice, and devotion to duty - these are life’s natural aspirations." - Norman Vincent Peale

"Man little knows what calamities are beyond his patience to bear till he tries them; as in ascending the heights of ambition, which look bright from below, every step we rise shows us some new and gloomy prospect of hidden disappointment; so in our descent from the summits of pleasure, though the vale of misery below may appear, at first, dark and gloomy, yet the busy mind, still attentive to its own amusement, finds, as we descend, something to flatter and to please. Still as we approach, the darkest objects appear to brighten, and the mortal eye becomes adapted to its gloomy situation." - Oliver Goldsmith

"Remember that when you are unhappy it is generally because you do not visualize strongly enough the great things that you definitely want to accomplish in life, nor do you employ steadfastly enough your will power, your creative ability, and your patience until your dreams are materialized." - Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh

"Patience, the beggar’s virtue." - Philip Massinger

"If you have a wounded heart, touch it as little as you would an injured eye. There are only two remedies for the suffering of the soul: hope and patience." - Pythagoras, aka Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras the Samian NULL