61 Waiting Quotes

Waiting can be both positive and difficult, depending on the situation. At times, waiting teaches us patience, hope, and trust. At other times, waiting too long can become procrastination or indecision and keep us from taking the action we need to take.

These waiting quotes offer thoughts about patience, faith, God's timing, opportunity, love, life, and knowing when it is time to stop waiting and move forward. May they encourage you during the times when patience is needed and inspire you to act when the time is right. You may also enjoy these poems about waiting.

Updated September 29, 2026, by Catherine Pulsifer.

Waiting Quotes About Patience And Hope

Waiting can test our patience, but it can also teach us to hope, trust, and keep going when answers do not come quickly.

Train yourself not to dread unpleasant tasks but instead to tackle them first. . . If you wait until the end of the day, it will be worse than doing your tasks earlier.
Joyce Meyer, The Confident Woman Devotional

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

You plant your own garden instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. In other words, take responsibility for your own needs and your own happiness.
Maggi Myers, The Final Piece

Now is the time! Ah, friend, no longer wait to scatter loving smiles and words of cheer
Miriam Brown, When I Have Time

Gratitude is an opportunity that is there waiting for you every day.
Mark Phillins, Gratitude Devotional

In this life's uneven flow; we've only to wait, in the face of fate, for the green grass under the snow.
Annie A. Preston, The Green Grass Under The Snow

Every day you are away, I am here to stay true - waiting this time out with grace, not dismay
Catherine Pulsifer, Missing You

There comes a day in life, when you have said all that you ever wanted to say to someone. But that someone is still waiting. Waiting for words to come out. And that’s when you know there is nothing much left. It is time to say goodbye.
Anushka Bhartiya

No gain comes from waiting and complacency won’t intercede, too much is at stake; just do it now so your dreams succeed.
Catherine Pulsifer, Procrastinate No More

Why do we wait for a glad tomorrow — why not gladden the precious now?
Unknown, When To Be Happy

Waiting On God And Trusting His Timing

Some seasons of waiting call for faith. These quotes reflect on prayer, God's timing, trust, and believing that waiting can have a purpose.

But all the human joys that thrill in ecstasy divine would be but sorry grief until I held your hand in mine.
Nixon Waterman, A Love Song

God can turn any tragedy into a triumph, if only you will wait and watch.
Max Lucado

When others run, O Father, their anxious hearts to sate, that I may have thy guidance teach me on thee to wait.
Clara McAlister Brooks, His Way

We focus on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but we forget to pause in the stillness of the days between. Find time today to be present in that place of waiting. There is treasure to be found in the sacred peace that comes as you breathe in that place of quiet surrender. Don’t rush through the space called "Between."
Katherine J Walden

Another year is dawning! Dear Master, let it be, in working or in waiting, another year with thee
Frances Ridley Havergal, Another Year

Don’t waste time waiting for opportunity to surface; it may never happen that way. Spend time to create one and many more will unfold in series!
Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive

Loved ones are waiting and watching my coming, heaven holds all to me.
Tillitt S. Teddlie, Heaven Holds All To Me

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting....you'll be a Man, my son
Rudyard Kipling, If

Time is too slow for those who wait
Henry VanDyke, Time Is

We can't all get, what we want right away.
And waiting is needed, to show us the way.
Julie Hebert, Life Is Patience

The vessel of faith journeys on soft waters. Belief rides on the wings of waiting.
Max Lucado, God Is With You Every Day

Quotes About Waiting Versus Taking Action

There is a time to wait and a time to act. These quotes encourage us to recognize when patience is wise and when waiting has become procrastination.

It seemed you could not wait the time of asking....though years have passed since then, do not despair, the Lord will answer you, — sometime, somewhere.
Mrs. F. Browning Burroughs, Sometime, Somewhere

We scorn to wait for the thing worth having; we want high noon at the day's dim dawn
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Fault Of Age

The World seems crumbling. But you’re not alone. Because someone cares. Someone is waiting for you, and someone is looking for you!
Rula Osta, Cheer Up! It's A New Day

Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.
Author Unknown

Faith is not merely waiting for glory that may be
S. E. Kiser, Faith Is Not

I’ll wait forever, if that is what it’ll take for you to forgive me. I love you.
Unknown

...to act instead of waiting, to persevere instead of giving up. It is possible with self-knowledge and patience, to take small steps that will carry you through to the finish.
Jane B. Burka; Lenora M.Yuen, Procrastination

We must let go of the life we had planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell

Don't waste your life waiting for others to take action, live your passion, set your goals and move in the direction to attain them.
Mary Bermer

I pray for strength to wait, submissive, when I cannot see my way
William C. Richards, I Pray For Strength

Waiting Quotes About Life And Opportunity

Life often places us between what has been and what comes next. These quotes remind us to notice opportunities, make thoughtful choices, and not spend life simply waiting for change.

We’re often waiting for something, but God is waiting for us to act. What we forget is that God is much bigger than all our inadequacies and mistakes.
Tony Dungy, The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge

If you want something go out and get it, stop sitting and wishing you had.
It's time to make dreams a reality, and stop waiting for things to go bad.
Julie Hebert, Stop Wishing

If we have to wait to see how we feel before we know if we can enjoy the day, then we are giving feelings control over us.
Joyce Meyer, Trusting God Day by Day

Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.
John Grogan, Marley and Me

These would I keep: ...the strength to work, the patience to wait
Lida Marie Erwin, These I Would Keep

Those who strive to be of value to their neighbours in need are knowledgeable that waiting serves no one.
Catherine Pulsifer

The thing is, you have abundance waiting inside of you, right now. You have the seed of greatness waiting for a little bit of water to rain down on you.
Lisa Nichols, Abundance Now

That each obstacle encountered is just waiting for a solution to help you further your goal.
Byron Pulsifer

A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.
Maya Angelou

Of all the time,I sit here thinking,
I often wonder, what's out there waiting.
Julie Hebert, Enough Thinking

Waiting Quotes About Love, People And Everyday Life

Waiting touches many parts of everyday life, from love and family to friendship, helping others, and the simple moments that ask us to be patient.

But you did something great, and made me never wait, how lucky I was to have a dad like thee.
Julie Hebert, Tea Party Type of Dad

Life is too short to be waiting around for opportunities to come in your direction. You must go out there like a hunter and hunt them down.
Edmond Mbiaka

In the waiting room of life, you can choose to trust God instead of panicking. You also need to remember two things: One, God is never in a hurry. And two, God is never late. God’s timing is always perfect.
Rick Warren

Ease me down the path of Your truth. Feed me Your word because You are the True God who has saved me. I wait all day long, hoping, trusting in You.
Psalm 25:5 (The Voice)

It's time to make dreams a reality, and stop waiting for things to go bad."
Julie Hebert, If You Want Something Go Get It

Don't wait until you are in-between two dead bodies before you appreciate life. Being alive is a great privilege.
Kate Iroegbu, The Best Motivational Book Ever Written

If your life is not to your liking, don't sit around waiting for it to change.
Lynda Field, Weekend Life Coach

For the pathways will grow desolate waiting,
The flowers say, “Our loveliness has no eyes to behold it!"
Helen Hoyt, the Garden

You are not alone; there is a great big world out there waiting to champion you and help you live your very best life.
Cyndie Spiegel, A Year of Positive Thinking

Fishing is a delighting way of recreation, a great way to enjoy the outdoors. You would definitely catch some fun while patiently waiting for a tasty meal.
Jack Roush, Fishing

Inspirational Waiting Quotes About Trusting What Comes Next

We do not always know what is ahead. These final quotes encourage patience, contentment, courage, trust, and an open heart while we wait for what comes next.

So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to buy you flowers.
Author Unknown

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

I can run a thousand miles and wait a million years for you if you love me.
M.F. Moonzajer

Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what’s waiting out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it.
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

It’s not polite to keep a vacation waiting.

We can learn a lesson from the butterfly beginning it's life crawling along the ground, then spinning a cocoon, patiently waiting until the day it will fly.
Heather Wolf, Kipnuk the Talking Dog

In scene after scene - in the womb in Nazareth, in the manger in Bethlehem, in the Temple in Jerusalem – the spotlight consistently shines on Jesus. He is, after all, what the story is all about. He is what the waiting of Advent and the celebration at Christmas are all about.
Darrell W. Johnson, The Most Wonderful Time of All Years

So learn to wait and learn to trust and never cease to pray.
Patience Strong, Hope Deferred

I "loved" the people in my life by doing nice things for them and not waiting or hoping for a nice thing to be done back in my direction.
Bryan Cohen, How to Work for Yourself

Do you recognize all of your brothers or sisters? You should. They are all around. They're standing in front of you, beside you, and behind you. They are also the ones wearing tattered clothes sitting on the streets of every city with a cup in their hands waiting patiently for you to help. Do you see them now?
Byron R. Pulsifer

Conclusion

Waiting is a part of life, but every season of waiting is different. Sometimes patience is exactly what we need, giving us time to grow, trust, and prepare. At other times, the best thing we can do is stop waiting for circumstances to change and take the first step ourselves.

May these waiting quotes remind you to recognize the difference. Be patient with the things that need time, keep your faith when the way ahead is uncertain, and have the courage to act when an opportunity is placed before you.

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