Haste

If you trap the moment before it's ripe,
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe;
But if once you let the ripe moment go,
You can never wipe off the tears of woe.
~ William Blake, Gnomic Verses xii.

It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted.
~ William Blake, The Four Zoas (1797).

Rouze up O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads
against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the
Camp, the Court, & the University: who would if they could, for
ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War.
~ William Blake, Milton, a Poem in 2 Books (c.1804). Preface

And up he got, in haste to ride,
But soon came down again.
~ William Cowper, The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1782).

For 'tis a truth well known to most,
That whatsoever thing is lost --
We seek it, ere it come to light,
In every cranny but the right.
~ William Cowper, The Retired Cat

[O]h, could we only hide
Our heart's impatience, and with meekness stay
To hear the Voice of Wisdom ere we speak.
~ William Chatterton Dix, from A Vision of All Saints, and Other Poems (1871). Patience

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time.
~ Billy Joel, in The Stranger (1977 album). Vienna

In their hurry to attain some ambition, to gratify the dream of a life, men often throw honor, truth, and generosity to the winds.
~ William George Jordan, The Majesty of Calmness (1900). Hurry, the Scourge of America

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The pine tree seems to listen, the fir tree to wait: and both without impatience -- they give no thought to the little people beneath them devoured by their impatience and their curiosity.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. Second Sequel: The Wanderer and His Shadow (December 1879).

Haste makes Work which Caution prevents.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Personal Cautions

Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided.
~ William Penn, Quoted in Instant Quotation Dictionary (1979).

Don't just grab the first thing that comes by. Know what to turn down.
~ Will Rogers, Quoted in Criswell Freeman The Wisdom of the West (1997).

Advantage is a better soldier than rashness.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act III, scene vi

Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Celerity is never more admir'd
Than by the negligent.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act III, scene vii

Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II

No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act III, scene ii

This sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene vi

Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene iii

Stop and smell the garlic! That's all you have to do.
~ William Shatner, The Associated Press (15 November 2001). Shatner at 70 Is Busier Than Ever

The enemy of that grand central habit of interior patience is haste: haste of thought, haste of judgment, haste of manner, haste of speech.
~ W. (William) Bernard Ullathorne, Letter to Mother Francis Raphael

Before you speak, listen.
Before you write, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.
Before you retire, save.
Before you die, give.
~ William Arthur Ward

Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Custer and Other Poems (1896). Will

And yet not choice but habit rules the unreflecting herd.
~ William Wordsworth, from Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series (1821-22), Part II. XXVIII: Reflections

How fast has brother followed brother,
From sunshine to the sunless land!
~ William Wordsworth, Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg. Stanza 6 (1835)

Swift has sailed into his rest;
Savage indignation there
Cannot lacerate his breast.
~ William Butler Yeats, Swift's Epitaph (1933)