Patience Is Bitter But Its Fruit

Despite widespread attribution to Aristotle, this saying predates any connection to him. French traveler Jean Chardin recorded it in Voyages en Perse (1711) as a Persian proverb — a year before Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to whom it is also commonly attributed, was even born. The saying is likely of Persian origin and became attached to both thinkers through later quotation anthologies.