By Daniel, ESL Educator & Idiom Series Author
Here’s a surprise. One of the writers most often credited with this famous saying about patience used it in a poem that doesn’t really believe it.
Before we get to her, let’s make sure the meaning is clear.
Quick answer: Good things come to those who wait means that if you are patient, you will often get something good in the end. People say it to encourage someone who is tired of waiting.
“All things” before “good things”
An older and very common form of the proverb is all things come to those who wait. According to Gary Martin of The Phrase Finder, it is often credited to Violet Fane, the pen name of the English poet Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie (1843–1905). Her poem has a French title, “Tout vient à qui sait attendre” (roughly, “everything comes to the one who knows how to wait”), and it includes the line:
“Ah, all things come to those who wait.”
But the very next lines turn that comfort upside down. The speaker says the words “to make me glad,” and then a soft, sad voice answers: “They come, but often come too late.” So the poet repeats the proverb partly to question it.
And she probably wasn’t the first to use it anyway. Martin notes that The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations dates the proverb to the early 16th century. It doesn’t give an example he could check, though, so the honest answer is: the idea is old, and the exact first speaker is unknown.
A beer that made it famous again
Many people in the UK know good things come to those who wait from television. From 1998, the brewer Guinness used it as the slogan for a series of ads. The joke behind it: a glass of Guinness takes a long time to pour properly, about two minutes. One of the ads, Surfer (1999), was voted the best ad of all time in a 2002 poll by The Sunday Times and Channel 4.
When it helps, and when it annoys
This is the part that dictionaries don’t cover. Proverbs like this one are usually said to someone who is waiting, not by them. And how it lands depends on the situation.
- It comforts when the wait is normal and the result is likely: a friend waiting for test results, a child waiting for a birthday, a team waiting for a product launch.
- It can annoy when the person is waiting for something unfair or out of their control, like a late paycheck or a slow visa process. Then it can sound like “stop complaining.”
- It’s often said with a smile when the wait is short and silly: a pizza in the oven, a slow coffee machine, or yes, a glass of Guinness.
So use it gently, and sometimes add something practical: “Good things come to those who wait, but let me know if I can help.”
Using it correctly
- It’s a complete sentence, so it doesn’t change: not “good things came to those who waited.”
- Keep the plural: those who wait, not “those who waits” or “the one who wait.”
- Short versions are common in speech: “Good things come…” (with a knowing look), or “Patience!”
- People also play with it in ads and headlines: “Good things come to those who bake.”
A two-minute scene
Leo: I’ve refreshed the job website ten times. Still nothing.
Priya: They said they’d decide by Friday, right?
Leo: Yes, but waiting is torture.
Priya: I know. Good things come to those who wait. Let’s go for a walk and stop refreshing.
Other ways to talk about patience
- patience is a virtue: patience is a good quality to have. More of a gentle lesson than a promise.
- Rome wasn’t built in a day: big achievements take time.
- hold your horses: wait, slow down. Usually said when someone is rushing.
- better late than never: it’s better to do something late than not at all. Read the story behind it.
A Note from Daniel
What I find most worth remembering about this proverb is what it asks of the person hearing it. Not passivity — but steadiness. The patience it describes is not the absence of effort or desire. It’s the discipline of staying with a process you didn’t design and cannot speed up, trusting that what you’ve already done is enough, for now. That’s harder than it sounds, and anyone who has offered this phrase to someone who really needed to hear it knows that. If you have a story about a time when waiting was the hardest part — and what eventually came — I’d genuinely love to hear it.
Sources
- Martin, G. “All things come to those who wait.” The Phrase Finder. phrases.org.uk
- “Good things come to those who wait (Guinness).” Wikipedia. wikipedia.org
- Cambridge Dictionary, entry: “good things come to those who wait.”
Every word carries a story. Stay curious. — Daniel