Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.

The line links patience with the learning curve: difficulty is presented not as a sign of failure but as a normal stage before mastery. By framing hardship as “before” ease, it turns struggle into evidence of progress—an argument for endurance in study, craft, moral self-discipline, or spiritual practice. The imperative “Have patience” also implies a temporal ethic: the right response to frustration is steadiness rather than haste. In Saadi’s broader moral universe, such counsel typically serves both practical wisdom (skills take time) and character formation (patience as a virtue that refines the self).

1) "Have patience; all things are difficult before they are easy."
2) "Be patient. Everything is difficult before it becomes easy."
3) "Patience—everything is difficult before it is easy."