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Who really said it

Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything

Nobody identified — an anonymous modern aphorism Unknown Anonymous · earliest located instance 2013, already unattributed
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

This one carries two famous credits and zero sources. It is not in George Bernard Shaw’s plays, prefaces or letters, and it is not listed among his quotations anywhere that cites a text. It is equally absent from the compiled sayings of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib — not in Nahj al-Balagha, not in the standard collections. The earliest instance we can date is a 2013 blog post, and it was already labelled ‘Unknown’ then. Both famous names arrived afterwards, in comment threads.

Last verified 21 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything” Anonymous. Earliest located instance 2013, already unattributed. Not George Bernard Shaw, and not Imam Ali.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to George Bernard Shaw. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of George Bernard Shaw — Irish playwright, critic and Nobel laureate in Literature. Theme: "Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Origin
Unknown — no author identified
Earliest located
10 September 2013, credited ‘Unknown’
Shaw source
None — no text ever cited
Imam Ali source
None located in Nahj al-Balagha or the standard collections

Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything. Anonymous, earliest located 2013

Read it cold and the shape gives it away. ‘Two things define you’ is the numbered-listicle frame of the social-media era — the same mould as ‘Three things you can never recover.’ Neither Edwardian English prose nor classical Arabic aphorism opens by announcing its own item count.

The earliest dated instance we located — credited 'Unknown', 2013

How we traced it

  • The earliest datable appearance we found is a philosophy blog post of 10 September 2013, which reproduces the line, credits it to ‘Unknown’, and says it came off Twitter. In the comments a reader proposes Imam Ali; the blogger replies that he could not find a source. That exchange is the misattribution being born in public the 2013 post ↗.
  • On the Shaw side: the line does not appear on Wikiquote’s Shaw page in any section — not in the sourced quotations, not in the disputed ones, not even in the misattributed list, which is where a well-known fake would normally be filed. Every copy that credits Shaw gives a bare name and no work Shaw on Wikiquote ↗.
  • On the Imam Ali side: none of the copies crediting him supply an Arabic text, a saying number, or a manuscript — the things an authentic transmission always carries. Genuine Ali sayings on patience do exist and are numbered; this is not one of them the sayings, numbered ↗.
  • The most telling detail is directional. The Arabic version of the line that circulates online is itself commonly credited to George Bernard Shaw. That is what you would expect if an English internet aphorism had been translated into Arabic — and the opposite of what you would expect if a seventh-century Arabic saying had been translated into English.

We are giving no rights status for this one, because you cannot clear rights in a text whose author and date of first publication are both unknown. If it was written by an anonymous internet user around 2013, someone owns it and nobody can name them; there is no basis for calling it public domain. Practical advice: quote it as anonymous, do not print it on merchandise, and do not credit Shaw or Imam Ali, which is the error this page exists to fix. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

Two credits, no sources

Most misquotations have one false author. This one has two, in different halves of the world, and the shape of the double credit is the most informative thing about it: a line with no source can be adopted twice over, because there is nothing in the way.

Not George Bernard Shaw no text ever cited

Not in the plays, the prefaces, the criticism or the published letters. Not in Wikiquote’s sourced list — and, tellingly, not in its misattributed list either, which is where the well-known fakes live. Every Shaw-credited copy is a bare name attached to a graphic Shaw on Wikiquote ↗.

Not Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib no Arabic source located

We could not locate it in Nahj al-Balagha or the standard collections of his sayings, and no copy crediting him supplies an Arabic original, a saying number or a chain of transmission. This is a finding about a paper trail, not about the tradition: Ali’s authentic corpus is real, carefully numbered, and rich on exactly this theme — which is why a modern line about patience can slip into its orbit so easily.

English first, Arabic after the giveaway

The Arabic wording now circulating is itself widely credited to Shaw. A seventh-century Arabic saying does not acquire a Victorian Irish playwright’s name on its way into Arabic. An English internet aphorism translated into Arabic, carrying its bogus Shaw label along, does exactly that.

'Unknown' and probably correct

The earliest instances say Unknown. That is not a gap in the record — it may simply be the right answer. Somebody wrote a good sentence on the internet and did not sign it.

Anything before 2013 open

We found no instance earlier than September 2013, but our full-text searching of pre-2000 print was incomplete, so we are not claiming the line cannot be older. We are claiming that nobody has produced a source for either famous credit.

Author unknown. No source has ever been produced for George Bernard Shaw or for Imam Ali, and the earliest instance we can date already said ‘Unknown’ the 2013 instance ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It sets a pair of tests that most maxims skip. Plenty of sayings tell you how to behave when things are hard; this one adds the harder half, which is how you behave when things are easy. Almost everyone would rather be judged on the first clause.

It also travels well because it is culturally weightless — no scripture, no period, no idiom that dates it. That is precisely what let it be adopted twice: it can sound like Edwardian moral briskness or like classical wisdom literature, depending on which name you put underneath, and it does not resist either.

The Arabic version is credited to Shaw. That settles which language came first.

How to test a quote like this yourself

Ask what the citation is. Not who said it — which play, which letter, which numbered saying. A real attribution names a document.

Check the register against the person. Shaw wrote in argument; he did not write listicle openers.

For a saying attributed to a classical source, look for the original language. An authentic transmission carries its Arabic, Greek or Latin with it.

Watch which way translation flows. If the ‘original-language’ version carries the modern Western name, the modern Western version came first.

Treat ‘Unknown’ as an answer, not a placeholder. The oldest instances of this line say Unknown, and they were probably right.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Humility

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The 2013 blog post — earliest dated instance, credited 'Unknown'philosiblog.com

Carries the line with no author, and a comment thread in which the Imam Ali credit is proposed and cannot be sourced.
George Bernard Shaw — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

The sourced, disputed and misattributed Shaw lists. This saying appears in none of them.
Nahj al-Balagha — sayings of Amir al-Mu'minin Alial-islam.org

The principal compiled source for Ali’s sayings, numbered throughout — useful for seeing what a genuine citation looks like.
'Unknown' again, four years laterquotationcelebration.wordpress.com

A 2017 write-up that still gives the author as Unknown, with readers again proposing Imam Ali without a citation.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

1856–1950 · Irish playwright, critic and Nobel laureate in Literature

George Bernard Shaw wrote for seventy years across plays, prefaces, criticism and a famously enormous correspondence, and he was quotable in a particular way — brisk, paradoxical, faintly scolding. That is the exact register a manufactured aphorism aims for, and the sheer volume of the real corpus means nobody expects to be able to check. He is a documented sink for other people’s lines: the apple-and-idea exchange belongs to Charles F. Brannan, ‘the single biggest problem in communication’ is closer to William H. Whyte, and the Churchill telegram exchange is apocryphal. This is one more.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Anonymous. Earliest located instance 10 September 2013, already credited ‘Unknown’. No source exists for either the George Bernard Shaw or the Imam Ali attribution.

MLA (9th ed.)

“Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.” Anonymous, earliest located instance 2013.

APA (7th ed.)

Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything. (2013). Anonymous [earliest located instance].

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing’?” Last verified 21 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/two-things-define-you-your-patience-when-you-have

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