Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi! Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you.

-St Augustine originally Aurelius Augustinus
AD 397  Confessions, bk.10, ch.27.

The dread of beatings! Dread of being late! And, greatest dread of all, the dread of games!

-Betjeman, SirJohn
  Summoned by Bells, ch.7.

Except the L build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the L keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDORDPsalms127:1^2.

Five minutes! Zounds! I have been five minutes too late all my life-time!

-Cowley, Hannah
  The Belle's Stratagem, act1, sc.1.

Most people really believe that the Christian commandments (e.g. to love one's neighbour as oneself) are intentionally a little too severeölike putting Kincaid the clockonhalf anhour tomakesure of not being late in the morning.

-Kierkegaard, So«  ren Aabye
Journal entry (translated by Alexander Dru,1938).

Tout est dit, et l'on vient trop tard depuis plus de sept mille ans qu'il y a des hommes et qui pensent. Everything has been said. After seven thousand years of human thought, we have come too late.

-La Bruye'  re,Jean de
  Les Caracte'  res ou les m½urs de ce sie'  cle,'Des ouvrages de l'esprit', no.1.

I have noticed that people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.

-Lucas, E(dward) V(errell)
  365 Days and One More.

   My celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplored, And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse: Since first this subject for heroic song Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late.

-Milton,John
  Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.9, l.21^6.

Trois heures, c'est toujours trop tard ou trop to"  t pour tout ce qu'on veut faire. Three o'clock is always either too late or too early for anything one might want to do.

-Sartre,Jean-Paul
  La Nause¤  e,'Vendredi'.

What dreamest thou, drunkard, drowsy pate? Thy lust and liking is from thee gone. Thou blinkard blowboll, thou wakest too late.

-Skelton,John
  'Lullay, Lullay, Like a Child'.

I have come to the borders of sleep, The unfathomable deep Forest, where all must lose Their way, however straight Or winding, soon or late; They cannot choose.

-Thomas, (Philip) Edward
  'Lights Out'.

   There is no more offensive act of theatrical rudeness than coming late to a performance.

-Zolotow, Maurice
  In TheaterArts, Feb.