Better Late Than Never
“Better late than never” is a common, much-used English idiom. It’s used when someone wants to welcome the fact that something has happened, even if it happened later than expected or planned for.
The phrase found its way into English later and was used for the first time in a written text by Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem, “Canterbury Tales,” appearing in the “Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale.” Neither the Canon nor his yeoman are with the group at the start of the pilgrimage and join the merry band at a later date as they make their way to Canterbury. They are both alchemists, and Chaucer’s distaste for both is evident.
The phrase is not so much about their late arrival, but about what actions should be taken. The full line is:
“Ye that it usen, I counsel ye it let, lest ye lose al; for bet than never is late; never to thrive, were too long a date.”
Chaucer is basically saying that never is too long an amount of time for something to thrive, but to be late is not. His form of this phrase is written as “for bet than never is late,” in modern English, better late than never.