Waiting quotes
4.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside waiting — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"It seems that I have always been ahead of my time. I had to wait nineteen years before Niagara was harnessed by my system, fifteen years before the basic inventions for wireless which I gave to the world in 1893 were applied universally."
"If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I'm still waiting, it's all been to seduce women basically."
"For most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model. Removing mountains can wait."
"It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately fill up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness. -Pema Chodron, from "When Things Fall Apart"
"The future is literally in our hands to mold as we like. But we cannot wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is now."
"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, For hope would be hope for the wrong thing."
"I studied with the Maharishi for many years, and really didn't learn that much. But one thing that he taught me, I'll never forget: 'ALWAYS...' no, wait-- 'NEVER...' no, wait, it was 'ALWAYS carry a litter bag in your car. It doesn't take up much room, and if it gets full, you can toss it out the window.'"
"I had been acting since I was seven years old, but I had a combination of things happen at about the same time. 'Austin Powers' came out on DVD, I got a series regular gig on 'Buffy' and 'Can't Hardly Wait' came out."
"I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light."
"Don't wait the time is never just right."
"Hurry up: your dreams are waiting for you, but they will not wait forever"
"Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards."
"The stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be clothed in words."
"Death is but changing of our robes to wait in wedding garments at the Eternal's gate."
"It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning."
"There is nothing more agreeable than having a place where one can throw on the floor as many cigar butts as one pleases without the subconscious fear of a maid who is waiting like a sentinel to place an ashtray where the ashes are going to fall."
"Rather than waiting to restore fiscal responsibility after we pass legislation, we must work to ensure we remain committed to it as we draft legislation."
"Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control."
"It isn't necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you."
"Church membership was so important that Paul and Silas baptized the Philippian jailer into the membership of Christ's church at midnight with Paul's back still bloody from a beating! He did not even wait till morning! Identification with Christ's church is important; without it, one must be treated 'as a heathen and publican.'"
