Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Promise
A great many shoes are worn out before a man does what he says.
A promise is a debt.German, Italian.
A promised dollar is not worth half.German.
All promises are either broken or kept.
Don’t promise what you cannot perform.Turkish.
Expect nothing from him who promises a great deal.Italian.
Fair promises bind fools.Italian.
Give no credit to great promises.
He loses his thanks who promises and delays.
He promises like a merchant-man, and pays like a man-of-war.
He ruins himself in promises and clears himself by giving nothing.French.
He that promises too much means nothing.
His promises are lighter than the breath that utters them.
In the land of promise a man may die of hunger.Dutch.
Lavish promises lessen credit.Horace.
Men apt to promise are apt to forget.
Neither promise wax to the saint, nor cakes to the child.Modern Greek.
No greater promisers than those who have nothing to give.Dutch.
Nothing weighs lighter than a promise.German.
Promise little and do much.
Promises and undressed cloth are apt to shrink.Danish.
Promises are for fools.
Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken.
Promises don’t fill the belly.German.
Promises fill no sack.German.
Promises make debts and debts make promises.Dutch.
Promises may make friends, but ’tis performance keeps them.
Promises must not fill the place of gifts.Latin.
Promising and performing are two things.French, Dutch.
Promising is not giving but serves to content fools.
Take heed, girl, of the promise of a man, for it will run like a crab.Spanish.
There is no piety in keeping an unjust promise.
There is no virtue in a promise unless it be kept.Danish.
Thy promises are like Adonis’s garden,
That one day blossomed and fruitful were the next.Shakespeare.
To promise is easy, to keep it troublesome.Danish.
To promise more butter than bread.French.
To promise more carts than oxen.Italian.
To promise much means giving little.Portuguese.
When a man repeats a promise again and again he means to fail you.
Who makes no promises has none to perform.German.
Who promises much and does little, dines a fool on hope.German.