“It seems to me that whenever circumstances arise in the ordinary business of life in which, if two persons were ordinarily honest and careful, the one of them would make a promise to the other, it may properly be inferred that both of them understood that such a promise was given and accepted.”

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

Source: City (1952), Chapter 5, “Paradise” (p. 139)

Brownlow v. Egerton (1854), 23 L. J. Rep. Part 5 (N. S.), Ch. 365.

Source: The Awakening

Source: The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

Letter to General James Henry Carleton (May 17, 1864)
Context: Particular care should be taken that every promise made to them [the Navajo and Mescalero Apache] should be observed to the letter. In this way I am confident that in a few years they would equal if not excel our peaceful and industrious Pueblos, and be a source of wealth to the Territory, instead of being as heretofore its dread and impoverishers.

Source: My Double Life (1907), Ch. 25
Context: Victor Hugo could not promise without keeping his word. He was not like me: I promise everything with the firm intention of keeping my promises, and two hours after I have forgotten all about them. If any one reminds me of what I have promised, I tear my hair, and to make up for my forgetfulness I say anything, I buy presents — in fact, I complicate my life with useless worries. It has always been thus, and always will be so.