It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
Civilization rests on a set of promises; if the promises are broken too often, the civilization dies, no matter how rich it may be, or how mechanically clever. Hope and faith depend on the promises; if hope and faith go, everything goes.
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.
When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his ownself in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then- he needn't hope to find himself again.
If you wish to be success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.
The best way to keep one's word is not to give it.
The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday --but never jam today.
What a woman says to her avid lover should be written in wind and running water.
— Catullus
Promise is most given when the least is said.
Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it.
All promise outruns performance.
But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.
He is poor indeed that can promise nothing.
Thou ought to be nice, even to superstition, in keeping thy promises, and therefore equally cautious in making them.
Better break your word than do worse in keeping it.
Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them.
Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made.
The man who promises everything is sure to fulfil nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
It is useless to hold a person to anything he says while he is in love, drunk, or running for office.
The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.
God never made a promise that was too good to be true.
Everyone's a millionaire where promises are concerned.
— Ovid
Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once.
He loses his thanks who promises and delays.
— Proverb
There are no greater promisers than those who have nothing to give.
— Proverb
In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter.
Eggs and oaths are easily broken.
Nothing weights lighter than a promise.
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
Between today and tomorrow are graves, and between promising and fulfilling are chasms.
— Ruckett
No pillows so soft as God's Promise.
— Saying
A promise made is a debt unpaid.
Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken.
One promises much, to avoid giving little.
Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise.