Lateness Quotes

• It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks lateness, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patching to repair great rents in the quotidian.

  John Updike

  Lying, Deceit, Firsts

  "Couples". Book by John Updike, 1968.

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• Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Time, Three

  William Shakespeare (1784). “Stockdale's edition of Shakespeare, with explanatory notes”, p.56

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• One of the best known, and one of the least intelligible, facts of literary history is the lateness, in Western European Literature at any rate, of prose fiction, and the comparative absence, in the two great classical languages, of what we call by that name.

  George Saintsbury

  Names, Two, Fiction

  George Saintsbury (2012). “The English Novel”, p.11, tredition

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• You get work however you get work. People keep working, in a freelance world, and more and more of today's world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. They'll forgive the lateness of the work if it's good, and if they like you. And you don't have to be as good as the others if you're on time and it's always a pleasure to hear from you.

  Neil Gaiman

  Two, People, Forgiving

  Neil Gaiman's Commencement Address at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.uarts.edu. May 17, 2012.

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• Too-lateness, I realized, has nothing to do with age. It’s a relation of self to the moment. Or not, depending on the person and the moment. Perhaps there even comes a time when it’s no longer too late for anything. Perhaps, even, most times are too early for most things, and most of life has to go by before it’s time for almost anything and too late for almost nothing. Nothing to lose, the present moment to gain, the integration with long-delayed Now.

  Russell Hoban

  Self, Long, Age

  Russell Hoban (1999). “A Russell Hoban omnibus”, Indiana Univ Pr

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• Always late: thus I make you the prisoner of my freedom.

  Mason Cooley

  Freedom, Late, Prisoner

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• The superior thing ... was to be late. Lateness showed that serene contempt for the illusion we call time which is so necessary to ensure the respect of others and oneself. Only the servile are punctual.

  Rose Macaulay

  Illusion, Punctuality, Serene

  Rose Macaulay (Dame.) (1923). “Mystery at Geneva”

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• I see what I want of Love... I see horses making the meadow dance, fifty guitars sighing, and a swarm of bees suckling the wild berries, and I close my eyes until I see our shadow behind this dispossessed place... I see what I want of people: their desire to long for anything, their lateness in getting to work and their hurry to return to their folk... and their need to say: Good Morning.

  Mahmoud Darwish

  Morning, Horse, Eye

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• When a learner, in the fullness of his powers, comes to great truths unstaled by premature familiarity, he rejoices in the lateness of his lessons.

  George Iles

  Education, Truth, Science

  George Iles (1918). “Canadian Stories”

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• The deep of night is crept upon our talk,
  And Nature must obey necessity.

  William Shakespeare

  Nature, Sleep, Night

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 225

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