"Everything comes in time to those who can wait"
About this Quote
Rabelais is an odd messenger for pious calm. He’s a Renaissance satirist with clerical credentials, famous for excess, bodily comedy, and barbed intelligence. Coming from that world, the quote reads less like stained-glass wisdom and more like a knowing aside: society runs on delays, hierarchies, and deferred permission. Waiting is how institutions train obedience. The subtext isn’t only "be patient"; it’s "recognize the system of timing". If you can endure the slow grind - the paperwork, the seasons, the social rules - you eventually get access.
There’s also a psychological realism tucked in: waiting is a filter. Most people quit, panic, or force outcomes before they’re ripe. The person who can sit with uncertainty tends to outlast everyone else. In an era of plague cycles, political volatility, and church authority, that patience isn’t merely virtue; it’s survival strategy.
Quote Details
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rabelais, Francois. (2026, January 15). Everything comes in time to those who can wait. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/everything-comes-in-time-to-those-who-can-wait-150627/
Chicago Style
Rabelais, Francois. "Everything comes in time to those who can wait." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/everything-comes-in-time-to-those-who-can-wait-150627/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Everything comes in time to those who can wait." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/everything-comes-in-time-to-those-who-can-wait-150627/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.







