Promises Quotes, Sayings about Commitments

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot – Abraham Lincoln.

It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath – Aeschylus.

Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies – Benjamin Franklin.

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes – Benjamin Franklin.

Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing – Bernard M. Baruch.

The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague – Bill Cosby.

When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat? – Chuck Palahniuk.

Let God’s promises shine on your problems – Corrie Ten Boom.

God’s promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine – David Nicholas.

Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep – Denis Waitley.

Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made – Edgar Watson Howe.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing – Edmund Burke.

We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears – Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld.

One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes – Friedrich Nietzsche.

Promise is most given when the least is said – George Chapman.

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.

April is a promise that May is bound to keep – Hal Borland.

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.

It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality – Harold Geneen.

Broken promises don’t upset me. I just think, why did they believe me? – Jack Handy.

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it – Jean Jacques Rousseau.

For every promise, there is price to pay – Jim Rohn.

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.

The New Frontier I speak of is not a set of promises — it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intent to ask of them – John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

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.

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises – Mae West.

Breach of promise is a base surrender of truth – Mahatma Gandhi.

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.

Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey – Marcel Proust.

One promises much, to avoid giving little – Marquis de Vauvenargues.

The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it – Napoleon Bonaparte.

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise – Niccolo Machiavelli.

The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present – Niccolo Machiavelli.

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers – Nikita Khrushchev.

Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it – Norman Douglas.

Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once – Norman Vincent Peale.

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans – Peter F. Drucker.

A liar is always lavish of oaths – Pierre Corneille.

All promise outruns performance – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one; they promised to take our land, and they did – Red Cloud.

When a man takes an oath.. he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then – he needn’t hope to find himself again – Robert Bolt.

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep – Robert Frost.

A promise made is a debt unpaid – Robert Service.

Oaths are but words, and words but wind – Samuel Butler.

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement – Samuel Johnson.

Beauty always promises, but never gives anything – Simone Weil.

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.

Life didn’t promise to be wonderful – Teddy Pendergrass.

Thou ought to be nice, even to superstition, in keeping thy promises, and therefore equally cautious in making them – Thomas Fuller.

Better break your word than do worse in keeping it – Thomas Fuller.

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one – Wayne Dyer.

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.

An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise – William Dean Howells.

Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them – William Hazlitt.

The promises of yesterday are the taxes of today – William Lyon MacKenzie.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform – William Penn.

He was ever precise in promise-keeping – William Shakespeare.

Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits – William Shakespeare.

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2 Responses

Reader Says:
January 27th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Good work! Thank you!
I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my site?
Of course, I will add backlink?

Sincerely, Timur Alhimenkov
thaksJiseek Says:
February 5th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Hi. Your site displays incorrectly in Mozilla, but content excellent! Thank you for your wise words:)

Quotes And Sayings