“Patience is a sure remedy for all misfortunes, but there is no remedy for patience.”François de La Rochefoucauld · Maxime · 1665 · Maxima 404
Patience cures everything, but nothing cures the habit of waiting.
The maxim works like a trap: it praises patience, then turns it against the person practicing it. Someone who learns to endure everything ends up enduring things that should never be tolerated. An employee waiting years for a promotion that never comes calls it patience, when in fact he is postponing the decision to leave. The virtue becomes a refined way of suffering passively.
Why it matters Useful whenever you are tempted to mistake endurance for avoiding a hard but necessary decision.