1. R. Eliezer said: Repent one day before your death. His disciples asked him, Does then one know on what day he will die? Then all the more reason that he repent today, he replied, lest he die tomorrow, and thus his whole life is spent in repentance. And Solomon too said in his wisdom [Ecclesiastes 9:8]: ‘Let your garments be always white; and let not your head lack ointment.’ R. Johanan b. Zakkai [c. 70 CE] said: This may be compared to a king who summoned his servants to a banquet without appointing a time. The wise ones adorned themselves and sat at the door of the palace, [‘for,’] said they, ‘is anything lacking in a royal palace?’ The fools went about their work, saying, ‘Can there be a banquet without preparations?’ Suddently the king desired [the presence of] his servants: the wise entered adorned, while the fools entered soiled. The rejoiced at the wise but was angry with the fools. ‘Those who adorned themselves for the banquet,’ ordered he, ‘let them sit, eat and drink. But those who did not adorn themselves for the banquet, let them stand and watch’ (b.Shabbat 153a)

2. ‘Return to the Eternal One, your God’ [Deuteronomy 4:30]. R. Samuel Pargerita said in the name of R. Meir (c. 150 CE): To what is this matter to be likened? To a king’s son who was misbehaving. The king sent his tutor to him with the message: Consider, my son! The son sent to his father, saying: With what countenance can I return? I am ashamed before you. Thereupon his father sent the message to him: My son, is a son ashamed to return to his father? If you return, are you not returning to your father? Similarly, God sent Jeremiah to the Israelites when they had sinned. He said to him: Go and tell my children: Consider! From where can that be proved? From Jeremiah 3:12: ‘Go and proclaim these words to the north . . .’ Thereupon the Israelites replied to Jeremiah: With what countenance can we return to God? From what can that be proved? It is said in v. 25 of the same: ‘We lie in our shame and our sin covers us . . .’ Thereupon God had it said to them: My children, if you return, are you not returning to your father? From what can that be proved? From Jeremiah 31:9: I am a father to Israel. (Deuteronomy Rabba 2 on Deuteronomy 4:30)
-quoted from G. Theissen and A. Merz, The Historical Jesus, 317-18.

3. (A parable told by Rabbi Ze`era at the funeral of his teacher Rabbi Bun bar Hijja, who died at an early age (c. 325 CE))
He began by saying that the situation was like that of a king who had hired a great number of labourers. Two hours after the work began, the king inspected the laborers. He saw that one of them surpassed the others in industry and skill. He took him by the hand and walked up and down with him till the evening. When the laborers came to receive their wages, each 
of them received the same amount as all the others. Then they murmured and said: “We have worked the whole day, and this man only two hours, yet you have paid him the full day's wages.” The king replied: “I have not wronged you; this laborer has done more in two hours than yhou have done during the whole day.” So likewise, concluded the funeral oration, has Rabbi Bun bar Hijja accomplished more in his short life of twenty-eight years than many a grey-haired scholar in a hundred years. 
(j.Berakhot 2,8 (5c)).
-paraphrase cited from G. Theissen and A. Merz, The Historical Jesus, 346.