In Hitch 22, Christopher Hitchens asks himself: “What is your least favorite virtue, or nominee for the most overrated one?” His answer: “Faith. Closely followed – in view of the overall shortage of time – by patience.”
In other parts of the book, he describes himself proudly as impatient.
It is no surprise, considering Hitchens’ well-known position on faith, that he differs from St. Augustine who called patience the companion of wisdom. That, of course, is the general view.
But Hitchens begs to differ, though he does not spell out his reasoning. But it is clear enough. To improve the world, to get anything done, it is better to be impatient than to be patient. Patience means acceptance of the status quo. The origin of the word tells all: it means suffering, remaining passive, and derives from the Greek pathein, to suffer. Why should that be a virtue?
One can make a case for patience as a tactic, as Tolstoy did when he wrote that “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” Nobody could argue with that – obviously, in war and peace one has to wait for the right moment to act. That is the opposite of passivity.
But what about Emerson’s advice: “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” Nature has many secrets but patience is not one of them. In any case, this is better advice to gardeners than to politicians. If they wait for their opponents to make a fatal mistake, they may have to wait for ever.
Sammy Davis Junior, Jr. makes more sense: “Alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity.”
Eric Koch’s new book, The Golden Years: Five Stories, was launched on Saturday, March 16. The book is available from the 
I am not a patient person, but unlike Hitchens I am not proud of the fact. I wish I were otherwise. In fact, I see patience as an essential aspect of civilization. Without patience, the world would be uncivil indeed – a pushing, shoving, mess of humans, each claiming the right to be at the front of the line.
My problem with patience is its close association with waiting. I hate waiting. But I’ve learned to cope by reading, kniting, or even thinking while I wait and it’s pretty amazing what you can get done while waiting if you actually DO something.
It seems having the patience to make haste slowly is a rare gift, especially in this Nike world of “Just Do It”. Taking the time to reflect, listen, strategize, create alliances and to respect the views, beliefs and expertise of others requires annoying amounts of self discipline, but generally leads to better change than impulsive actions which do not take into account the nuanced complexity of the world and how other people see things. I wish I were better at it, although it gets easier with age…
Who wrote: Quidquid id est, prudenter agas and respice finem ? This seems pertinent.
Author unknown. First printed in 1472 in Gesta Romanorum.
According to
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_lateinischer_Phrasen/Q#Quidquid ,
“Dieser Satz wird auf Äsops Fabel 45 zurückgeführt.”
Every child knows that. Gesta Romanorum was a collection of Aesop fables and diverse anecdotes.