Sayings about Promises
Better a friendly refusal than an unwilling promise. ~German Proverb
Don’t promise something when you are full of joy; don’t answer letters when you are full of anger. ~ Chinese Proverb
Promises are like the full moon, if they are not kept at once they diminish day by day. ~ German Proverb
Promises make debt, and debt makes promises. ~ Dutch Proverb
In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone’s letter. ~ Chinese Proverb
From the promise to the deed is a day’s journey. ~ Bulgarian Proverb
When a man repeats a promise again and again, he means to fail you. ~ Traditional Proverb
The world has not made a promise to anybody. ~ African Proverb
Promise little and do a lot. ~ Hebrew Proverb
We make big promises to avoid little presents. ~ French Proverb
A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain. ~ Arabian Proverb
The day cuts off the promise of the night. ~ Egyptian Proverbs
He loses his thanks who promises and delays. ~ Traditional Proverb
The day will wipe out all the promises of the night. ~ Iraqi Proverb
Many promises impair confidence. ~ Latin Proverbs
Never promise a poor person, and never owe a rich one. ~ Brazilian Proverbs
Don’t expect from others what you can’t promise them yourself. ~ Chinese Proverb
God promises a safe landing but not a calm passage. ~ Bulgarian Proverb
Eggs and promises are easily broken. ~ Japanese Proverbs
Mother earth promised to tell her secrets to heaven. ~ Serbian Proverb
When you are sick you promise a goat, but when you are well again make do with a chicken. ~ Nigerian Proverb
A promise is a comfort for a fool. ~ Traditional Proverb
There are no greater promisers than those who have nothing to give. ~ Traditional Proverb
Promises have legs. Only a gift has hands. ~ German Proverb
He promised me earrings, but then only pierced my ears. ~ Arabian Proverb
God promised me a fur coat and I’m already sweating. ~ Polish Proverbs
Promised berries will not fill the basket. ~ Latvian Proverb
A promise is a debt. ~ Traditional Proverb
Men apt to promise are apt to forget. ~ United States Proverb
Evening promises are like butter: morning comes, and it’s all melted. ~ Moroccan Proverbs
An un kept promise leads to a bad life. ~ Yiddish Proverb
In the land of promise a man may die of hunger. ~ Dutch Proverb
No greater promisers than they who have nothing to give. ~ Dutch Proverbs
No pillows so soft as God’s promise. ~ Traditional Proverb
Nothing weights lighter than a promise. ~ German Proverbs
There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept. ~ Gaelic Proverb
Quotations about Promises
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement. ~ Samuel Johnson
Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Promise is most given when the least is said. ~ George Chapman
Promises that you make to yourself are often like the Japanese plum tree – they bear no fruit. ~ Francis Marion
Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten. ~ Dick Gregory
For every promise, there is price to pay. ~ Jim Rohn
To threaten the brave with death is like promising water to a duck. ~ Arabian Proverb
Better break your word than do worse in keeping it. ~ Thomas Fuller
How little is the promise of the child fulfilled in the man. ~ Ovid
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans. ~ Peter F. Drucker
This is the first convention of the space age – where a candidate can promise the moon and mean it. ~ Author Unknown
The future is as bright as the promises of God. ~ William Carey
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising. ~ Cyril Connolly
I will fore think what I will promise, that I may promise but what I will do. ~ Arthur Warwick
But as the arms-control scholar Thomas Schelling once noted, two things are very expensive in international life: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail. ~ Fareed Zakaria
America is like an unfaithful love who promises us more than we got. ~ Charlotte Bunch
Promises retain men better than services; for hope is to them a chain, and gratitude a thread. ~ Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn
Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing. ~ Edmund Burke
The politician’s promises of yesterday are the taxes of today. ~ Mackenzie King
A liar is always lavish of oaths. ~ Pierre Corneille
A promise must never be broken. ~ Alexander Hamilton
Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey. ~ Marcel Proust
Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits. ~ William Shakespeare
For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice — no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service. ~ John Burroughs
Promises are like babies: easy to make, hard to deliver. ~ Author Unknown
The promises of yesterday are the taxes of today. ~ William Lyon MacKenzie
Those who promise by the cart-load generally pay by the spadeful. ~ James Lendall Basford
Promises,–the ready money that was first coined and made current by the law of nature, to support that society and commerce that was necessary for the comfort and security of mankind. ~ Lord Clarendon
The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
If you can’t give me your word of honor, will you give me your promise? ~ Samuel Goldwyn
One of the things I’m always proud of is ‘Promises made, promises kept.’ I’ve never ever not done what I’ve said I’m going to do. ~ Russell Pearce
In executing the duties of my present important station, I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence. ~ George Washington
God never made a promise that was too good to be true. ~ Dwight L. Moody
He is poor indeed who can promise nothing. ~ Thomas Fuller
Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught. ~ Sydney J. Harris
Most of us are pretty good at keeping promises to others and pretty bad at keeping promises to ourselves. ~ Lawrence LeShan
Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. ~ Wayne Dyer
I thought he was a young man of promise; but it appears he was a young man of promises. ~ Author Unknown
One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
God’s promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine. ~ David Nicholas
A politician is known by the promises he keeps. ~ Author Unknown
Those that are slowest in making a promise are the most faithful at performing it. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau
Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them. ~ William Hazlitt
Beauty always promises, but never gives anything. ~ Simone Weil
A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise. ~ Niccolò Machiavelli
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. ~ François VI de la Rochefoucault
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers. ~ Nikita Khrushchev
Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made. ~ Edgar Watson Howe
Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once. ~ Norman Vincent Peale
An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises. ~ Mae West
Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing. ~ Bernard M. Baruch
Keep every promise you make and only make promises you can keep. ~ Anthony Hitt
I had rather do and not promise, than promise and not do. ~ Arthur Warwick
It is easy to promise, and alas! How easy to forget! ~ Louis Charles Alfred de Musset
April is a promise that May is bound to keep. ~ Hal Borland
One promises much, to avoid giving little. ~ Luc de Clapiers
The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague. ~ Bill Cosby
If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven. ~ Will Rogers
It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises. ~ Chief Joseph
All promise outruns performance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep. ~ Denis Waitley
Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken. ~ Jonathan Swift
Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell. ~ Karl Popper
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present. ~ Niccolò Machiavelli
We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. ~ Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise. ~ Thornton Wilder
Everyone’s a millionaire where promises are concerned. ~ Ovid
A promise made is a debt unpaid. ~ Robert W. Service
Life is too short to worry about anything. You had better enjoy it because the next day promises nothing. ~ Eric Davis
Between today and tomorrow are graves, and between promising and fulfilling are chasms. ~ Author Unknown
It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality. ~ Harold Geneen
He was ever precise in promise-keeping. ~ William Shakespeare Quotes
You cannot live on other people’s promises, but if you promise others enough, you can live on your own. ~ Mark Caine
He who is the slowest in making a promise is the most faithful in the performance of it. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Breach of promise is a base surrender of truth. ~ Mohandas Gandhi Quotes
Life didn’t promise to be wonderful. ~ Teddy Pendergrass
It is easy to make promises – it is hard work to keep them. ~ Boris Johnson
An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise. ~ William Dean Howells
Magnificent promises are always to be suspected. ~ Theodore Parker
Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform. ~ William Penn
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible. ~ Hannah Arendt
In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality. ~ Harold S. Geneen
To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. ~ Mark Twain Quotes
If you wish to be success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes
Let God’s promises shine on your problems. ~ Corrie Ten Boom
Anyone can be rich in promises. ~ Ovid
The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. ~ Robert Frost
Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise. ~ Author Unknown
To promise is to give, to hope is to enjoy. ~ Abbe Jacques Delille
Magic trick: to make people disappear, ask them to fulfill their promises. ~ Mason Cooley
A promise is a child of the understanding and the will; the understanding begets it, the will brings it forth. ~ Francis Quarles
Enemies’ promises were made to be broken. ~ Aesop
When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat? ~ Chuck Palahniuk
The man who promises everything is sure to fulfill 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. ~ Carl Jung
Thou ought to be nice, even to superstition, in keeping thy promises, and therefore equally cautious in making them. ~ Thomas Fuller
