PATIENCE, time, and money accommodate all things

Meaning & Analysis

With enough patience, time, and financial resources, any challenge or situation can be managed or resolved.

Insights

Power of Perseverance

The proverb asserts that steady endurance and persistence, paired with the necessary means and the passage of time, can overcome obstacles and achieve desired outcomes.

Pragmatic Approach to Life

It presents life’s difficulties as fundamentally solvable if one possesses patience, waits for the right moment, and has the material means, suggesting a practical, almost transactional, view of human affairs.

Interdependence of Resources

By listing patience, time, and money together, the saying underscores the complementary nature of these resources: patience alone is rarely enough without time or money, and vice versa.

Historical Attitude Toward Success

Emerging in an age increasingly concerned with commerce, social mobility, and self-help, the proverb reflects early modern and Enlightenment attitudes that blend moral virtues (patience) with practical realities (time and money) as keys to progress.

Cultural Reflections on Means and Ends

This saying bridges moral wisdom and economic reality, suggesting that spiritual and material resources are both required to 'accommodate'—that is, to resolve, adjust, or accomplish—life’s many demands.

Optimism and Control

The proverb promotes a fundamentally optimistic worldview: with the right qualities and means, all things are possible, echoing a belief in human agency and the power to shape one’s fate.

Rhetorical Devices

Enumeratio

The listing of 'patience, time, and money' uses enumeration for emphasis and clarity, breaking a complex idea into memorable components.

Tricolon

The triple structure imparts rhythm and rhetorical force, reinforcing the proverb’s authority and persuasiveness.

Synergy

By joining abstract (patience, time) and concrete (money) nouns, the proverb achieves a balance that appeals to both idealism and practicality.

patiencetimemoneyperseveranceresourcessuccess
Analyzed with gpt-4.1 on July 10, 2025

Transcription

Quotations

1640, HERB., no. 494
1659, HOW., It. Prov., p. 13
1705, Pleas. Art, p. 157

Patience, Money, and Time, bring all Things to pass.

1732, FUL., no. 3858

Cross References

Original Scan

PATIENCE, time, and money accommodate all things - a scanned entry from Tilley's 1950 Dictionary of Proverbs.
Scan courtesy of HathiTrust Digital Library.
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.

© 2026 TilleyProverbs.com · About

Last updated: January 27, 2026