Profoundly inspirational waiting quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
Famous Waiting Quotes
All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for. ― Woodrow T. Wilson
If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him. ― Paulo Coelho
We’re like so many puppets hung on the wall, waiting for someone to come and move us or make us talk. Luigi Pirandello
If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives. ― Lemony Snicket
It’s hard being left behind. (…) It’s hard to be the one who stays. ― Audrey Niffenegger
Misfortune always comes to those who wait. The trick is to find happiness in the brief gaps between disasters. ― Chrıstopher Paolini
Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. ― John Ortberg
If I die, I will wait for you, do you understand? No matter how long. I will watch from beyond to make sure you live every year you have to its fullest, and then we’ll have so much to talk about when I see you again… (Bones) ― Jeaniene Frost
I had tended to view waiting as mere passivity. When I looked it up in my dictionary however, I found that the words passive and passion come from the same Latin root, pati, which means “to endure.” Waiting is thus both passive and passionate. It’s a vibrant, contemplative work. It means descending into self, into God, into the deeper labyrinths of prayer. It involves listening to disinherited voices within, facing the wounded holes in the soul, the denied and undiscovered, the places one lives falsely. It means struggling with the vision of who we really are in God and molding the courage to live that vision. ― Sue Monk Kidd
You usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for. ― Craig Bruce
I’ve learned that waiting is the most difficult bit, and I want to get used to the feeling, knowing that you’re with me, even when you’re not by my side. ― Paulo Coelho
The wait is long, my dream of you does not end. ―Nuala O’faolain
And sure enough even waiting will end…if you can just wait long enough. ― William Faulkner
For a while is a phrase whose length can’t be measured. At least by the person who’s waiting. ― Haruki Murakami
Waiting is the rust of the soul. ―Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Waiting and hoping are the whole of life, and as soon as a dream is realized it is destroyed. ― Gian Carlo Menotti
There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison ― Jane Austen
Waiting is a means of acquiring patience. ― Adrian Thatcher
How much of human life is lost in waiting. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take can sometimes be the most painful… ― José N. Harris
You have to imagine a waiting that is not impatient because it is timeless. ―R. S. Thomas
Whatever we are waiting for — peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance — it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. ― Sarah Ban Breathnach
..as long as nothing happens between them, the memory is cursed with what hasn’t happened. ― Marguerite Duras
Waiting is such a pervasive phenomenon in social life that it can be seen, and indeed has been seen, as almost synonymous to social being. Pascal sees the very small moments in which we are waiting “for this or that” as an indication that our life is worth living. Waiting indicates that we are engaged in, and have expectations from, life; that we are on the lookout for what life is going to throw our way. ― Ghassan Hage
The waiting time, my brothers, Is the hardest time of all. ― Sarah Doudney
Men trust God by risking rejection. Women trust God by waiting. ― Carolyn McCulley
Waiting is the great vocation of the dispossessed. ―Mary Gordon
Waiting is the rust of the soul. ― Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Then I thought, boy, isn’t that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad. ― Sharon Creech
We are not born to wait. We are born to do. ― Dean Koontz
For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place just for her, like a Reserved sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure I’d never see her again. ― Haruki Murakami
The fact that we wait for something is evidence that in some way we already possess it. ―Herbert Anderson
Don’t rush things. Anything worth having is worth waiting for. ― Unknown
We never live; we are always in the expectation of living. ― Voltaire
Waiting is our active response to the intrinsically ethical sociality of being. ― Joshua B. Davis
Waiting turns men into bears in a barn and women into cats in a sack. ― Robert Jordan
After you find out all the things that can go wrong, your life becomes less about living and more about waiting. ― Chuck Palahniuk
Now we play the waiting game. long pause Ah, the waiting game sucks. Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos! ―Homer SIMPSON
Waiting was a sin against both the time that was still to come and the moments one was currently disregarding. ― Neil Gaiman
I want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most. I don’t know if doing that would heal me or make my heart break entirely, but either way this constant hungry waiting would be over. ― Ally Condie
What if the waiting was the good stuff that lead to the piece of pie. But once we eat the pie, we realize maybe it wasn’t as good as we thought. Maybe it was the laughing while mixing the dough, the taste testing of the cherries, the checking of the oven, the wonder in the science of baking that was actually the real prize. Pie for thought, anyway. ― Anna Lınd Thomas
Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible. ― Cesare Pavese
It is very strange that the years teach us patience – that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting. ― Elizabeth Taylor
When our waiting is intentional, when it signifies surrender to a better plan, a better timeline, a higher calling, then we are waiting with purpose. ― Mark & Jill Herringshaw
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ― Abraham Lincoln
Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought. Useless and disappointing. ~ Sam (Hilary Duff), A Cinderella Story ― Hilary Duff
Maybe life isn’t about accomplishing the dream, the goal or the vision. Maybe life is really about the choices we make right now, while we’re in the waiting. ― Anna Lınd Thomas
Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count. ― Robert Anthony
Maybe you think you’ll be entitled to more happiness later by forgoing all of it now, but it doesn’t work that way. Happiness takes as much practice as unhappiness does. It’s by living that you live more. By waiting you wait more. Every waiting day makes your life a little less. Every lonely day makes you a little smaller. Every day you put off your life makes you less capable of living it. ― Ann Brashares
If you wait, you grow old, nothing more. ― Walter Bargen
There is no great achievement that is not the result of patient working and waiting. ― J. G. Holland
Knowing someone isn’t coming back doesn’t mean you ever stop waiting. ― Toby Barlow
There is nothing to be gained by waiting for a better situation. You see where you are and you do what you can with that. ― Jacob K. Javits
Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways — and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don’t know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection. ― Paulo Coelho
I was standing there, waiting for someone to do something, till I realized the person I was waiting for was myself. ― Markus Zusak
But the important thing about learning to wait, I feel sure, is to know what you are waiting for. ― Anna Neagle
The wait is long, my dream of you does not end. ― Nuala O’Faolain
I did the searching and remembering, she did the disappearing and the forgetting. ― Ann Brashares
Don’t wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations. ― Charles Richter
I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them. ― E. V. Lucas
Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts. ― Elizabeth Elliot
Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience – waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking. ― Gary Paulsen
I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done. ― Elisabeth Elliot
Yes, waiting is our work, or at least a critical aspect of it. Waiting is a purposeful holding back. A form of internal leash yanking. It is placing a bit in the mouth of your desires and yanking on the reins when they begin to gallop beyond their place. And since restraint is involved, it is painful. Not perhaps like being stung by a bee, or smacked in the face, but more like the pain of a full bladder. If you don’t get to say or have or do what you feel you must, you just know you’re going to burst! ― Eric Youngblood
Waiting is a risk to something or nothing, it’s on your own Decision if you’ll stay and still with your Patience. ― Kent Ian N. Cny
I’ll come back to you, I say. I promise you, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll come back to you.
Her face is buried in my neck. She nods. I’ll count the minutes until you do. she says. ― Pittacus Lore
With today’s technology, why are we still waiting in lines? Is there anything more frustrating or more wasteful than standing in line? Why don’t we know what kind of wait to expect at our favorite restaurant, at the grocery store, at the DMV, or at the airport security line? With today’s technology, this information should be at our fingertips. ― Rich Kenny
If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd. ― Edward de Bono
…sitting and waiting is one of the most miserable occupations known to man – not that it usually is known to men; women do it much more often. ― Diana Gabaldon
Everybody is waiting for cooler weather–and I am just waiting for you–. (Bob Dylan in a letter) ― Suze Rotolo
When you are waiting for a train, don’t keep perpetually looking to see if it is coming. The time of its arrival is the business of the conductor, not yours. It will not come any sooner for all your nervous glances and your impatient pacing, and you will save strength if you will keep quiet. After we discover that the people who sit still on a long railroad journey reach that journey’s end at precisely the same time as those who “fuss” continually, we have a valuable piece of information which we should not fail to put to practical use. ― Anna C
Don’t Wait! Start on your dreams, your impulses, your longings, your special occasions today. Because this is your moment. ― Mary Anne Radmacher
Wait on the Lord is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come. ― J.I. Packer
Never give up on someone. Sometimes the answers you are looking for are the same answers another person is looking for. Two people searching together are always better than one person alone. ― Shannon L. Alder
We shall understand that when waiting is rightly comprehended, it is a deliciousness that is already indeed a wink of bliss. ― Mother Mary Francis
If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right, you’ll probably never do much of anything. ― Win Borden
Fear is the glue that keeps you stuck. Faith is the solvent that sets you free. ― Shannon L. Alder
I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts. Its easy to talk oneself into a decision that has no permanence – easier sometimes than to wait patiently. ― Elisabeth Elliot
We are all waiting for something. Waiting for the doctor, waiting for the phone call, waiting in traffic, waiting for the plane, waiting for the baby, waiting for spring. Waiting is an inevitable part of life and can certainly be frustrating and stressful. As Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sang, waiting is the hardest part. However, it doesn’t have to be a time of misery. ― Michele
Spread your wings – today. Why wait. ― Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Even a snail will eventually reach its destination. ― Gail Tsukiyama
Don’t wait to be hunted to hide, that was always my motto. ― Samuel Beckett
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. ― Mario Andretti
Standing on a street corner waiting for no one is power. ― Gregory Corso
Time felt slower when we do nothing but wait. ― Toba Beta
Waiting turns men into bears in a barn, and women into cats in a sack. ― Robert Jordan
If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. ― Senegalese Proverb
I think that love is stronger than habits or circumstances. I think it is possible to keep yourself for someone for a long time, and still remember why you were waiting when she comes at last…. I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me. ― Peter S. Beagle
Waiting is without expectation and yet because it awaits nothing, it is insatiable. For since any arrival or other form of gratification would be its end, waiting must ceaselessly betray itself by withdrawing everything that is awaited. ― John Paul Rıcco
Don’t wait for your ship to come in – swim out to it. ― Jerry Smith
One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. ― Oswald Chambers
Waiting is the worst. Few things in this world can make one feel so powerless as knowing something horrible is inevitable. Anticipating the end of the world as you know it takes an emotional and psychological toll on you. ― Skylar Baker-Jordan
To know how to wait is the great secret of success. ― De Maistre
The common man prays, ‘I want a cookie right now!’ And God responds, ‘If you’d listen to what I say, tomorrow it will bring you 100 cookies. ― Criss Jami
He tried to tell me week after week to accept things as they were and move on with my life. But if there was one man who had put his life on hold to wait for something or someone, it was him. ― Cecelia Ahern
Waiting is the experience of distance between stimulus and response. It is the experience of slowed time between action and consequence, question and answer, between the glimmer of an idea and the assertion of it. ― Lee Herman & Alan Mandell
Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress. ― Seth Godin
The more Susan waited, the more the doorbell didn’t ring. Or the phone. ― Douglas Adams
Waiting is something we all do, whether it is waiting in line, waiting for a stoplight or just waiting for the days, hours and minutes to pass. ― Bruce Wrıght
The worst part of life is waiting. The best part of life is to have someone worth waiting for. ― Unknown
I’m hungry for a juicy life. I lean out my window at night and I can taste it out there, just waiting for me. ― Brigid Lowry
Waiting is often the hardest thing to do, especially when it comes to pregnancy tests and sports seasons. ― Nathan Gıese
You are not just waiting in vain. There is a purpose behind every delay. ― Mandy Hale
Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if
he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast. ― Hermann Hesse
Waiting is not just about passing the time between the moment when expectation is raised and when it comes to completion … it has deep and lasting value in and of itself. ―Paula Gooder
I had tended to view waiting as mere passivity. When I looked it up in my dictionary however, I found that the words passive and passion come from the same Latin root, pati, which means to endure. Waiting is thus both passive and passionate. It’s a vibrant, contemplative work. It means descending into self, into God, into the deeper labyrinths of prayer. It involves listening to disinherited voices within, facing the wounded holes in the soul, the denied and undiscovered, the places one lives falsely. It means struggling with the vision of who we really are in God and molding the courage to live that vision. ― Sue Monk Kidd
What we are waiting for is not as important as what happens to us while we are waiting. Trust the process. ― Mandy Hale
Waiting is not an emergency. ― Jamıe Scott
Waiting is not mere empty hoping. It has the inner certainty of reaching the goal. ― I Ching
It is said there are flowers that bloom only once in a hundred years. Why should there not be some that bloom once in a thousand, in ten thousand years? Perhaps we never know about them simply because this once in a thousand years has come today. ― Zamyatin
Waiting is learning, learning is waiting. ― Lın Mın-Tzu
I would not sit waiting for some value tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime. … I would make something happen. ― Louis L’Amour
There was nothing new in sitting on this dock, on this or that wooden bench, watching for his boat to come. In some ways, she was always waiting for him. ― Ann Brashares
Nothing’s going to come to you by sitting around and waiting for it. ― Zoe Kazan
He has served countless kings, faked countless deaths, bided his time, waiting for you. ― Leigh Bardugo
While waiting for a Moses to lead us into the promised land, we have forgotten how to walk. ― Wendell Johnson
Tides do what tides do–they turn. ― Derek Landy
Most of us are waiting. We’re waiting for something interesting to happen. And I think we’re going to wait forever if we don’t do something more interesting with our lives. ― Donald Miller
Time was a funny and fickle thing. Sometimes there was never enough of it, and other times it stretched out endlessly. ― J. Lynn
Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given. ― G. Campbell Morgan
He was still immersed in the dim, wet wonder of the folded wings that might open if someone loved him; he still hoped, probably, in a butterfly’s unthinking way, for spring and warmth. How the wings ache, folded so, waiting; that is, they ache until they atrophy. ― Harold Brodkey
If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down your guard and love. ― David Deida
Time doesn’t heal all wounds, only distance can lessen the sting of them. ― Shannon Alder
Never keep long and be waiting. Waiters and quitters have just a slight difference but a common end. ― Israelmore Ayivor
The most inefficient and self-harming thing a person can do is go out looking for love. Let it find you when the time is right and you’re out doing what you love to do. Only then will you find it in its truest form. ― A.J. Darkholme
Waiting makes wine better; but waiting makes man decay! Don’t wait because you have no time! Move fast! Mehmet Murat ildan
You are waiting for something good to come; but you know, if the life is also waiting, then nothing will happen, nothing will come! Mehmet Murat ildan
I want no blood from you–not until we’re both sweaty and naked and you’re screaming my name. ― Nalini Singh
Waiting’s exhausting. ― Toba Beta
The thing about waiting is that the longer you wait, the more impatient you become. ― Ashay Abbhi
I stand here waiting. To disappear or sing. ― Francesca Lia Block
He thought of the number of girls and women she had seen marry, how many homes with children in them she had seen grow up around her, how she had contentedly pursued her own lone quite path-for him. ~ Stephen speaking of Rachael ― Charles Dickens
Waiting is not wasting. It is a strategy for champing for greater things. ― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
If chess has any relationship to film-making, it would be in the way it helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive. ― Stanley Kubrick
Waiting is not always a bad thing; it can bring its own joy -the thrill of anticipation. ― David Jeremiah
To make someone wait: the constant prerogative of all power, age-old pastime of humanity. ― Roland Barthes
I don’t care how wonderful heaven is, I won’t be content waiting thirty years for you. ― Jason F. Wright
I find waiting unbearable because it makes me passive and negates me. I hate being nothing. ― Kathy Acker
But, someone, please give me—who is born again but still so much in need of being born anew—give me the details of how to live in the waiting cocoon before the forever begins? ― Ann Voskamp
Trust is not a gasoline-soaked blanket that succumbs to the matches of betrayal, never able to be used for its warmth again; it’s a tapestry that wears thin in places, but can be patched over if you have the right materials, circumstances, and patience to repair it. If you don’t, you’re always the one who feels the coldest when winter comes. ― A.J. Darkholme
Waiting is a form of passive persistence. ― Ogwo David Emenike
Was I asleep? Had I slept? ― Samuel Beckett
The problem with people is they forget that most of the time it’s the small things that count. Everyone’s so busy waiting in the Waiting Place. If we stopped to remember that there’s such a thing as a Purina Tower and a view like this, we’d all be happier. ― Jennifer Niven
Waiting. Simply one person doing nothing, over time, while another approached. ― Ian McEwan
