Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1542 |
| AUTHOR: | Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) |
| QUOTATION: | But not the first Illusion, the new earth, The march upon the solitary fire, The casting of the dice of death and birth Against a giant, for a blind desire, The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried, The metal sleeping in the mountainside. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | The last two lines were quoted by Senator George McGovern in his remarks nominating R. Sargent Shriver as his vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket, in a television address from the Capitol, August 5, 1972. |
| SUBJECTS: | Promise |