— War and Peace (1869), Book 10, Chapter 16
About this quote
हिन्दी में
इन दो से बलवान कुछ भी नहीं: धैर्य और समय — यही दोनों सब कुछ कर देंगे।
What it means
Kutuzov is not offering a maxim about personal grit; he is defending a decision not to fight. In his mouth patience is a refusal — declining the battle everyone senior to him is demanding — and the sentence hands the credit for whatever follows to time and patience rather than to any commander. They will do it all is the strong part: the doing is assigned to the waiting.
That is true only of a particular kind of situation, one where forces are already working against your opponent — distance, supply, winter, his own overreach — so that delay compounds in your favour. Said about a situation where nothing is eroding on its own, the identical sentence is an excuse. It is worth keeping for the distinction it forces: this is a claim about causes, not about temperament.
What it teaches you
Before deciding to wait, name the specific thing that will be working on your behalf during the wait — a contract running out, a rival burning cash, evidence accumulating, a position getting harder for someone else to hold. If you can name it, waiting is a strategy and looking passive is a cost you are paying knowingly. If you cannot name anything, what you have is delay wearing patience as a costume.
अर्थ और सीख
यह बात कुतुज़ोव की है, जो युद्ध टालने के अपने फ़ैसले को समझा रहा है — यहाँ धैर्य का मतलब सहनशीलता नहीं, लड़ाई से इनकार है, और जीत का श्रेय सेनापति को नहीं, समय को दिया गया है। पर यह हर हाल में सच नहीं: यह तभी चलता है जब समय ख़ुद आपके विरोधी को कमज़ोर कर रहा हो। सीख यह कि इंतज़ार चुनने से पहले साफ़ बताइए कि इस बीच आपके पक्ष में क्या काम कर रहा है; अगर कुछ नहीं, तो वह धैर्य नहीं, टालमटोल है।
Where it comes from
Kutuzov, explaining why he will not give battle when everyone at court demands one. He has just said that taking a fortress is not difficult; winning a campaign is.
The line circulates in a tidier form — ‘the strongest of all warriors are these two, time and patience’ — which is not how any standard English translation renders it. The version here follows the Maude translation on Project Gutenberg.
