Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Promises
Promise is most given when the least is said.
George Chapman—Trans. of Musœus—Hero and Leander. L. 234.
Promettre c’est donner, espérer c’est jouir.
To promise is to give, to hope is to enjoy.
Delille—Jardins. I.
You never bade me hope, ’tis true;
I asked you not to swear:
But I looked in those eyes of blue,
And read a promise there.
Gerald Griffin—You Never Bade Me Hope.
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 39.
Giants in
Their promises, but those obtained, weak pigmies
In their performance.
Massinger—Great Duke. Act II. Sc. 3.
Thy promises are like Adonis’ gardens
That one day bloomed and fruitful were the next.
Henry VI. Pt. I. Act I. Sc. 6. L. 6.
His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing.
Henry VIII. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 41.
And be these juggling fiends no more believ’d,
That palter with us in a double sense:
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope.
Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 8. L. 19.
There buds the promise of celestial worth.
Young—The Last Day. Bk. III. L. 317.