No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.
Genuine
Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 1, chapter 15, section 7; George Long translation, Book I, XV, “What Philosophy Promises”.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation (1877).
The wording people share comes from a later translation; Long’s words are underlined below.
- Work
- Discourses (Διατριβαί), 108
- Where
- Book 1, chapter 15, section 7; George Long translation, Book I, XV, “What Philosophy Promises”
- Found at
- Paragraph 77 of the Greek text, 99 of the English
- Translation
- George Long, 1877
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
“How then shall my brother cease to be angry with me?” Bring him to me and I will tell him. But I have nothing to say to you about his anger.
[…] — Τὸ τίνος; — “Τὸ ἐκείνου, ἐν ᾧ εἰμί. [5] “ — Πῶς οὖν ἐκεῖνός μοι μὴ ὀργίζηται; — “Φέρε μοι ἐκεῖνον κἀκείνῳ ἐρῶ, σοὶ δὲ περὶ τῆς ἐκείνου ὀργῆς οὐδὲν ἔχω λέγειν.”
When the man, who was consulting him, said, “I seek to know this: How, even if my brother is not reconciled to me, shall I maintain myself in a state conformable to nature?” Nothing great, said Epictetus, is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is.1 If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen. Is then the fruit of a fig-tree not perfected suddenly and in one hour, and would you possess the fruit of a man’s mind in so short a time and so easily? Do not expect it, even if I tell you.
Εἰπόντος δὲ τοῦ συμβουλευομένου ὅτι Τοῦτο ζητῶ, [6] πῶς ἂν ἐκείνου καὶ μὴ διαλλασσομένου κατὰ φύσιν ἔχοιμι, [7] Οὐδέν, ἔφη, τῶν μεγάλων ἄφνω γίνεται, ὅπου γε οὐδ’ ὁ βότρυς οὐδὲ σῦκον. ἄν μοι νῦν λέγῃς ὅτι “θέλω σῦκον”, ἀποκρινοῦμαί σοι ὅτι “χρόνου δεῖ”. ἄφες ἀνθήσῃ πρῶτον, εἶτα προβάλῃ τὸν καρπόν, εἶτα πεπανθῇ. [8] εἶτα συκῆς μὲν καρπὸς ἄφνω καὶ μιᾷ ὥρᾳ οὐ τελειοῦται, γνώμης δ’ ἀνθρώπου καρπὸν θέλεις οὕτως δι’ ὀλίγου καὶ εὐκόλως κτήσασθαι; μηδ’ ἂν ἐγώ σοι λέγω, προσδόκα.
Where it comes from
The popular wording is Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s translation (Wikisource transcribes his 1890 edition), which Wikiquote quotes with “No thing great”; George Long’s 1877 translation, used here, reads “Nothing great … is produced suddenly”.
The scene
A man asks Epictetus how to persuade his brother to stop being angry with him. Epictetus answers that philosophy promises no external thing, only to keep one’s own ruling faculty in accord with nature; when the man then asks how he can stay in that state even if his brother is not reconciled, Epictetus gives this answer and adds: if a fig-tree’s fruit is not perfected in an hour, would you have the fruit of a man’s mind so quickly? Do not expect it, even if I tell you.
What it means
A settled character, like any fruit, takes time to grow: no one acquires the right state of mind at once just by being told how.
Often misread
Widely shared as a motto for patience in business, careers or projects. In the text the great thing is a person’s own mind and character, and the patience asked for is with one’s own slow progress, not with external success.
Topics
Related quotes
- The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epicurus
- Dig within. Within is the wellspring of good; and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig. (paraphrase) Marcus Aurelius
- Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. (not found) Albert Einstein
- A student is the most important person ever in this school. William W. Purkey
- No one can choose a beneficial direction in life without hope that change for the better is possible. William W. Purkey
Sources
- en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Works_of_Epictetus,_His_Discourses,_in_Four_Books,_the_Enchiridion,_and_Fragments/Book_1/Chapter_15 (Higginson translation)
- en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epictetus (Discourses, Book I, I.15.7)
- standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/discourses/george-long/text/single-page (George Long translation, 1877; corpus source)
- el.wikisource.org/wiki/Διατριβαί (Greek corpus source)
Cite it
Epictetus, Discourses (108), Book 1, chapter 15, section 7; George Long translation, Book I, XV, “What Philosophy Promises”, translated by George Long (1877). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/no-great-thing-is-created-suddenly/ (31 October 2026).
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