It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waitin... — Elizabeth Taylor

It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.

Author: Elizabeth Taylor

Insight: There's a real paradox in how time works on us. When you're young and feel like you have forever, you're impatient—tapping your foot at red lights, frustrated by delays, convinced that waiting is wasting your one wild life. But somewhere along the way, the math flips. The older you get, the more you realize that most things worth having require patience anyway. A career builds slowly. Relationships deepen over decades, not weeks. Even your own understanding of yourself takes time to settle. The strange part isn't just that we become more patient—it's that necessity teaches us something almost like wisdom. When you know your time is genuinely limited, you stop treating every moment like it's being stolen from you. Waiting for your kid to tie their shoes or for a friend to get their life together stops feeling like a theft. You realize that patience isn't the opposite of living fully; it's actually how you live fully. The hurrying, the impatience, the constant resistance to how things actually unfold—that's what wastes time, not the waiting itself. This hits differently now, when we're all trained to want everything instantly. The quote suggests that learning to wait isn't settling or giving up. It's the thing that lets you actually enjoy the life you're in, rather than constantly reaching for the next moment.