Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

The words of Jean de La Fontaine — “Patience and time do more than strength or passion.” — carry the voice of a sage who watched human nature with keen eyes and spoke in fables to teach eternal truths. They are simple in form, yet vast in meaning, for they tell us that life’s greatest victories are not seized by the reckless fire of passion, nor by the brute force of strength, but by the quiet endurance of those who wait, who persist, who trust in the slow unfolding of time. This wisdom is as old as the mountains: the river, though soft and yielding, wears down stone, while the mighty storm exhausts itself in a single night.

When La Fontaine speaks of patience, he speaks of discipline. It is the power to endure without breaking, to wait without despair, to continue without the need for immediate reward. And when he invokes time, he reminds us that the greatest forces in existence move slowly: the growing of forests, the shaping of continents, the ripening of fruit, the maturing of the soul. Against these, mere strength is fleeting, and passion—though fiery—is often consumed before it reaches its goal.

History offers us countless mirrors of this truth. Consider the tale of Nelson Mandela, who was confined in prison for twenty-seven long years. Others might have yielded to anger or been consumed by rage, but Mandela held to patience. When freedom finally came, he was not broken, nor vengeful, but steady, tempered by time, ready to lead his people toward reconciliation rather than destruction. Neither his strength nor his passion alone accomplished this, but his endurance and wisdom, forged slowly in hardship.

The ancients themselves taught this lesson in story. In Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare, it was not the swiftness of the hare, nor the hare’s fiery passion, that won the race. It was the tortoise’s steady patience, step by step, unhurried but unyielding, that brought victory. The hare’s strength failed him when his arrogance led him to sleep, but the tortoise’s perseverance was crowned in triumph. La Fontaine, who drew upon these fables, echoed this timeless teaching in his own words.

And yet, do not mistake this teaching as a dismissal of strength or passion. Both are gifts, but they are incomplete when standing alone. Strength without patience becomes reckless destruction; passion without time burns out into ash. But when joined with patience, strength is guided, and when paired with time, passion matures into lasting purpose. The slow, enduring flame is greater than the brief blaze.

The lesson for our own lives is profound. When we face hardship, we are tempted to force solutions with sheer effort, or to leap recklessly with passion. But La Fontaine urges us instead to wait, to endure, to trust the slow work of life. Whether in love, in work, or in personal growth, it is the long faithfulness of patience and the steady passage of time that transform dreams into reality. A tree does not grow overnight, nor does wisdom come in a single day.

Practical wisdom follows: cultivate patience as you would a sacred art. Begin each day by remembering that growth is slow, and do not curse delay as failure. When frustration comes, breathe deeply and remind yourself that time is a silent ally. Channel your strength into steady labor, and guide your passion into sustained devotion, but let patience and time be the foundation. In this way, your achievements will endure, not as fleeting sparks, but as lasting fires.

Thus, the words of La Fontaine endure as a lantern of truth: Patience and time do more than strength or passion. Remember this, and your path will be steady, your heart unshaken, and your destiny shaped not by impulse, but by the eternal flow of time itself.