On Patience

Part of my interest in this book emerges from my work in character and values education, where young people frequently identify patience as a quality they need to work on. This study is in fact the first extended philosophical examination of patience, drawing on a wide range of philosophical and religious sources from Seneca, Plato, Aristotle, Gregory the Great and the Stoic Epictetus to Nietzsche, Kafka, Shantideva and Simone Weil. One of the author's major concerns is to characterise patience as a disposition rather than a resource and to see it as a support to other virtues. He identifies various aspects of patience such as self-possessed waiting, uncomplaining endurance, forbearance and tolerance, constancy and perseverance. His own definition is 'the disposition to accept unavoidable burdens as well as various avoidable burdens that one can reasonably judge it to be wise to accept.' He considers patience in relation to wisdom, character, courage, hope and anger, as well as the limits of patience and the danger of identifying it with passivity. The reader is still left with questions such as how long we should wait, how much we should endure, and how often we should try again, but I do agree with the author that patience is indeed 'an attitude towards the world and a method of engaging with life's difficulties and opportunities.' This is a valuable and thoughtful contribution to the field.