“All things come to him who waits” was a popular proverb in the 19th century and is now popularly written as “good things come to those who wait.” “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits” was in the book Thomas Alva Edison: Sixty Years of an Inventor’s Life (1907); this variation has now usually been credited to American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931), but there is no evidence that Edison coined this saying.
 
“All things come to him who hustles” was cited in print in 1889, when it was said about the people of Kansas City, Missouri. “All things come to him who hustles” was also cited in 1891, when it was put in the coat-of-arms of a Chicago man.
 
“All things come to him who hustles while he waits” was cited in print in December 1893, when it was credited to a businessman from Erie County, New York. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle” has been cited in print since 1955 and is frequently incorrectly attributed to Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).
 
   
Wiktionary: all things come to those who wait
Proverb
all things come to those who wait
1. (dated) A patient seeker will be satisfied in due time; patience is a virtue.
Usage notes
This version of the proverb is now somewhat dated, the more common form today being good things come to those who wait (with good instead of all).
   
Wikiquote: Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-02-11 – 1931-10-18) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into the twenty-first century.
 
Quotes
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
. As quoted in Thomas Alva Edison : Sixty Years of an Inventor’s Life (1908) by Francis Arthur Jones, p. 14
 
3 March 1889, Kansas City (MO) Times, “Kansas City’s Interest,” pg. 3, col. 1:
“All things come to him who waits,” is indorsed by this busy and successful community as a very prettily stated axiomatic virtue. But for themselves they read it: “All things come to him who hustles.” The way to do a thing is to do it.
 
Chronicling America
17 June 1891, The Forrest Republican (Tionesta, PA), “Humor of the Day,” pg. 1, col. 7:
A Chicago man has just had a coat-of-arms fixed up with the motto, “All things come to him who hustles.”
 
3 December 1893, Cleveland (OH) Leader, “Passing Events,” pg. 4, col. 3:
A BUSINESS man in Erie county, N. Y. has prominently displayed in his office the motto, “All Things Come to Him Who Hustles While He Waits.”
 
11 December 1893, Boston (MA) Daily Globe, “Odd Items from Everywhere,” pg. 8: ‎
The motto of a business man to Erie county, N. Y., is: “All things come to him who hustles while he waits.”
 
Google Books
Barby Coey’s Philosophy:
What are we here for, and what is it all about?
By William Fennimore Cooper
New York, NY: Britannica Publication House
1894
Pg. 141:
COME TO STAY.
Success comes to him who hustles, is patient and takes care of his hustlings when he bags ‘em.
 
Google News Archive
14 March 1895, Livingston (MT) Herald, pg. 2, col. 5 ad:
“EVERYTHING
Comes to him who hustles
While he waits.”
(Herald Publishing Company—ed.)
 
Google Books
Thomas Alva Edison:
Sixty Years of an Inventor’s Life
By Francis Arthur Jones
London: Hodder and Stoughton
1907
Pg. 14:
During the time that his application was being considered, for even then he believed in his own modernized version of the old proverb, “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits,” he managed to make a few nickels by selling newspapers on the streets.
   
Google Books
Thomas Alva Edison:
Addresses delivered at the presentation to Thomas Alva Edison of the medal bestowed upon him by the Congress of the United States, West Orange, New Jersey, October twentieth, 1928
By Andrew W. Mellon, Ronald Ian Campbell, John Grier Hibben, Thomas A. Edison, William H. Meadowcroft, et al.
1929 (?)
Pg. ?:
Carrying on the same thought he is said to have made an adaptation of the well-known maxim to the effect that everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Rather than to any mysterious power, he attributes his success to intelligent and persistent hard work along the practical lines of applied science.
 
Google Books
The Harper Book of Quotations
(Revised Edition)
By Robert I. Fitzhenry
New York, NY: HarperPerennial
1993
Pg. 13:
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Thomas A. Edison
 
Google Books
The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Inspirational Quotes
By Wendy Toliver
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
2004
Pg. 126:
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. — Thomas A. Edison