Quotes about promise
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“The prison is overcrowded, the calendars full, the judges busy, the lawyers ambitious, and the cops zealous. What does it matter if someone gets trapped here for a year or two, gets ruined here, goes mad here, commits murder or suicide here? It's too bad, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I do not claim that everyone in prison here is innocent, but I do claim that the law, as it operates, is guilty, and that the prisoners, therefore, are all unjustly imprisoned. Is it conceivable, after all, that any middle-class white boy — or, indeed, almost any white boy — would have been arrested on so grave a charge as murder, with such flimsy substantiation, and forced to spend, as of this writing, three years in prison? What force, precisely, is operating when a prisoner is advised, requested, ordered, intimidated, or forced, to confess to a crime he has not committed, and promised a lighter sentence for so perjuring and debasing himself? Does the law exist for the purpose of furthering the ambitions of those who have sworn to uphold the law, or is it seriously to be considered as a moral, unifying force, the health and strength of a nation?”

James Baldwin book No Name in the Street

No Name in the Street (1972)

Bad luck, Health, Law, Way

“The 2019 novel coronavirus is a punishment by nature to humans' unsanitary lifestyle. I promise with my life that the virus has nothing to do with the (Wuhan Institute of Virology) lab.”

Shi Zhengli (1964) Chinese researcher

Shi Zhengli (2020) cited in " China denies lab link to coronavirus as questions over origin mount https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/5/china-denies-lab-link-to-coronavirus-as-questions-/" on The Washington Times, 5 February 2020.

Life, Nature

“We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation, one nation. And I promise you this. As the Bible says, “weep, ye may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.””

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

We will get through this together. Together. Look, folks, all my colleagues that I served with in the house and the senate up here, we all understand, the world is watching, watching all of us today. So here′s my message to those beyond our borders.<p>America has been tested, and we′ve come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again. Not to meet yesterday′s challenges, but today′s and tomorrow′s challenges.<p>And we′ll lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. We′ll be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.
2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)

Joy, Night

“Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

“Heaven is filled with only unimaginable pleasures and promises the absence of miseries.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Pleasure

“Jesus died so young and yet he promised immortality to those who believe in his teachings.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Two thieves also enjoyed the ride with Jesus. Maybe he's coming back to fulfil the promise that he made that day on the cross. Coming for the thief, rather like a thief himself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Our country needs to go forward, not to go back. I promise to build a Somalia that is in harmony with itself and is in harmony with the world.”

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (1955) President of Somalia; PDP Chairman; educator; civic, academic, and political activist

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (2022) cited in " Somalia Elects New President, but Terrorists Hold True Power https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/world/africa/somalia-election-president.html" on The New York Times, 15 May 2022.

World, Country

“And I heard 'em say
Nothing's ever promised tomorrow or today
From the Chi, like Tim, it's a harder way
So this is in the name of love like Robert say
Before you ask me to go get a job today,
Can I at least get a raise on the minimum wage?”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Heard 'Em Say
Lyrics, Late Registration (2005)

Love, Way

“Faeries believed in promises over fidelity of body or heart.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Heart

“Your father," Luke said, "what did he say to you when you saw him? What did he promise you?"
"Oh, you know. The usual. A lifetime's supply of Knicks tickets.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.”

Philippa Gregory book The White Queen

Source: The White Queen

Love, Women, Men

“God promised to make you free. He never promised to make you independent.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: The Irrational Season

God

“and then you stopped. And looked at me. And I knew then exactly what was going to happen. You kissed me, yes. But it was not just goodnight. Even then, I could feel the promise in it. The promise that you would kiss me just like that, forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Feeling, Kiss

“I don't promise to forget the mystery, but I know I'll have a marvelous time.”

Carolyn Keene book Nancy's Mysterious Letter

Source: Nancy's Mysterious Letter

Time, Forgetting

“Is this what sadness is all about? Is it what comes over us when beautiful memories shatter in hindsight because the remembered happiness fed not just on actual circumstances but on a promise that was not kept?”

Bernhard Schlink book The Reader

Source: The Reader

Happiness, Sadness, Beauty, Memory

“Peter loves to make promises. He has the best intentions of keeping them. It makes it worse, somehow, that he doesn’t know how to. He thinks he’s a nice boy, that’s the worst part.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Love, Boy, Thinking, Parting

“Good-bye Clarice. Will you let me know if ever the lambs stop screaming?" "Yes." Pembry was taking her arm. It was go or fight him. "Yes," she said. "I'll tell you." "Do you promise?""Yes.”

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs

Source: The Silence of the Lambs

Fight

“If you break little promises, you'll break big ones.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“They never discussed it, but both came to understand it as a promise: he would always make sure there was a place for her. She would always be able to say, Someone is coming. I am not alone.”

Celeste Ng book Everything I Never Told You: A Novel

Source: Everything I Never Told You

Understanding

“I know you feel inhuman, and as if you are set apart, away from life and love, but…"
His voice cracked a little, the first time Tessa had heard him sound unsure.
He cleared his throat. "I promise you, the right man won't care.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Love, Life, Feeling, Time

“as the shadows assume
shapes
I fight the slow
retreat

now
my once-promise
dwindling
dwindling

now
lighting new cigarettes
pouring more
drinks

it has been a beautiful
fight

still
is.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

Beauty, Drink, Light, Fight

“No amount of promises can guarantee love”

Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist

Source: Love In A Blue Time

Love

“Promise me you'll never stop dreaming.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Dreams

“Not a frog, I hope?” he asked…She shook her head. “No. And if it was I wouldn’t kiss it, I promise you. I might kiss a prince if I could be sure he’d turn into a frog, but not the other way around.”

Eva Ibbotson book A Song for Summer

Source: A Song for Summer

Hope, Way, Kiss

“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great, that I thought I was in a dream.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: The Original Scroll

Dreams, Star

“You promise me, he said. That you love him. Enough to marry him and make him happy.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Happiness

“Youth offers the promise of happiness, but life offers the realities of grief.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Rescue

Source: 2000s, The Rescue (2000), Chapter 1, p. 9

Life, Happiness, Youth, Reality

“Promises. I was drowning in promises.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

“I promise I'll do anything for you, especialy if it's easy.

Homer Simpson”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

“Why had such a promising world been crucified on the tree of obligation, thorned by duties, hanged by hypocrisy, smothered by customs?”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

World, Tree

“I will do what I promised." He whispered. "No matter what. I will not send you into the darkness alone.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

“And we believe in his promises. Therefore you can never lose hope - hatikva - because if you keep hope alive, it will keep you alive.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Variant: Therefore you can never lose hope--because if you keep hope alive, it will keep you alive.
Source: City of Lost Souls

Hope

“You and I are meant to be. It's the only thing I'm absolutely sure of. And while I have no idea what to expect, I promise I'll do whatever it takes to find my way back.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Everlasting

Way, Idea

“Promises were a lot like impressions. The second one didn't count for much.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Distant Shores

“I'll be back. And when i am, i promise i'll have answers.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

“I'm going to marry you one day, you know." "Is that a promise?" "If you want it to be.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

“So many dreams, so many disappointments, so many promises. And in the end, they all just vanish.”

Haruki Murakami book Pinball, 1973

Source: Pinball, 1973

Dreams, Disappointment

“We grew up founding our dreams on the infinite promise of American advertising. I still believe that one can learn to play the piano by mail and that mud will give you a perfect complexion.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dreams, Learning, Perfection

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep”

Elizabeth Hoyt (1970) American writer

Source: Thief of Shadows

“I promise I shall never give up, and that I'll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I'll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone's lapel and make them confess to me and to all.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

World

“Things that break - be they bones, hearts, or promises - can be put back together but will never really be whole.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Heart, Hurtful

“Promise me, Amelie, that you’ll crucify me with silver before you allow me to fall in love.”

“I hardly think there’s any chance of that,” Amelie said. "I doubt you have the capacity.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Love, Thinking, Chance

“I must survive. I have promises to keep.”

Michael Morpurgo book Private Peaceful

Source: Private Peaceful

“I did indeed say you could have lovers. But I never promised that I would not kill them.”

Madeline Hunter (1952) American novelist

Source: Ravishing in Red

Lovers

“I'll succeed,' Hazel promised. 'And Hecate? I'm not choosing one of your paths. I'm making my own.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Had you but seen it, I promise you, your high-minded principles would have melted like candle wax. Never would you have wished such beauty away.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Beauty

“Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.”

Cyril Connolly book Enemies of Promise

Source: Enemies of Promise (1938), Part 2: The Charlock’s Shade, Ch. 13: The Poppies (p. 109-110)
Context: Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.
Young writers if they are to mature require a period of between three and seven years in which to live down their promise. Promise is like the mediaeval hangman who after settling the noose, pushed his victim off the platform and jumped on his back, his weight acting a drop while his jockeying arms prevented the unfortunate from loosening the rope. When he judged him dead he dropped to the ground.

God

“Summer is only the unfulfilled promise of spring, a charlatan in place of the warm balmy nights I dream of in April. It’s a sad season of life without growth…It has no day.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Life, Sadness, Dreams, Spring

“We're like the wicked witch. We promise gingerbread, then eat the little brats alive.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Variant: We’re the wicked witch. We promise gingerbread, but we eat the little bastards alive.
Source: Ender's Game

“*Oh, I know I could say were through
And tell myself I'm over you
But even if I made a vow
I promise not to miss you now
And try to hide the truth inside
I fell cause I, I just can't live a lie”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

Truth, Lie

“A fair and just society offers equality of opportunity to all. But it cannot promise, and should not try to enforce, sameness.”

Christina Hoff Sommers (1950) American author and philosopher

“He promised us that everything would be okay. I was a child, but I knew that everything would not be okay. That did not make my father a liar. It made him my father.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“My heart belongs to you,' He promised.
'Would you have loved me when I was a girl?'
'I have always loved you. Even before I met you I loved the idea of you.”

Isobelle Carmody book Greylands

Source: Greylands

Love, Girl, Idea, Heart

“People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense-words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions-words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

People, History, Thinking

“If it makes you feel better, I promise to forget.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Feeling, Forgetting

“For what it’s worth: trust your feelings. I can’t promise that you’ll never get hurt again, but I can promise you the risk is worth it.”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

Feeling, Hurt

“Go now. Alone. Or I make good on my promise.
-A”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

Source: Wicked

“Five tender apricots in a blue bowl, a brief and exact promise of things to come.”

Frances Mayes (1940) American university professor and writer

Source: In Tuscany

“Your former friend Luke " Poseidon corrected. "He once promised things like that. He was Hermes's pride and joy. Just bear that in mind Percy. Even the bravest can fall.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Joy

“In the pool, on that last night of the last summer, we said we’d always come back. It’s scary how easy promises were broken. Just like that.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Summer, Night

“Release the demon under promise that I'd be repaid handsomely, my enemies destroyed? Hmm, where had I seen this before? Oh, right. Every demon horror movie ever made. And the horror part started right after the releasing part.”

Kelley Armstrong The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Parting

“We came in the wind of the carnival. A wind of change, or promises. The merry wind, the magical wind, making March hares of everyone, tumbling blossoms and coat-tails and hats; rushing towards summer in a frenzy of exuberance.”

Joanne Harris book The Lollipop Shoes

Source: The Lollipop Shoes

Change, Summer

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Love, God, Country

“What was that thing that could make two people promise one another to spend every day of the rest of their lives together? Ah, I found it. It was a thing called love. A small simple word.”

Cecelia Ahern book Thanks for the Memories

Source: Thanks for the Memories

Love, People

“But anyone can begin. It was the part with all the promise, the potential, the things I loved. More and more, though, I was finding myself wanting to find out what happened in the end..”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

Love, Parting

“The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Life, Feeling, Success, Future

“I can't promise I'll never kill anyone again," he once said, strapping a refrigerator to his back. "It's unrealistic to live your life within such strict parameters”

David Sedaris book Me Talk Pretty One Day

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Life

“Little less than a promise, and a little more than a chance.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Chance

“… even the most horribl e of nightmares is laced with the promise of dawn.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

“But I think the most important thing those books gave me was a kind of faith. My books promised me that life wasn’t just made up of workaday tasks and prosaic things. The world is bigger and more colorful and more important than that.”

Laura Amy Schlitz (1955) children's author

Source: The Hired Girl

Life, Books, World, Faith

“In a low whisper she was certain only her friend could
hear, she said, "I specifically remember we both promised never to drink from any man's goblet of wine. From the looks of you, Frances Catherine, I'm thinking you broke your word.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: The Secret

Drink, Thinking, Wine

“As soon as one promises not to do something, it becomes the one thing above all others that one most wishes to do.”

Georgette Heyer book Venetia

Source: Venetia

“Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it. (in a letter written while she was in college)”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Variant: Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.

“On a busy day twenty-two thousand people come to visit Santa, and I was told that it is an elf's lot to remain merry in the face of torment and adversity. I promised to keep that in mind.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

People, Business

“What we needed were not words and promises but the steady accumulation of small realities.”

Haruki Murakami book South of the Border, West of the Sun

Variant: What we needed were not words and promises but a steady accumulation of small realities.
Source: South of the Border, West of the Sun

Reality

“My whole life has been one big broken promise.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: How to Save a Life

Life

“Roza. You forgot my first lesson: Don’t hesitate.”- Dimitri Belikov (Blood Promise)”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Variant: You forgot my first lesson: don't hesitate.
Source: Blood Promise

“One must have a good memory to keep the promises one has made.”

Ann Brashares book Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Memory

“Poor Congo, barefoot bride of men who took her jewels and promised the Kingdom.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Men

“Oh, Tongue, give sound to joy and sing
Of hope and promise on dragonwing”

Anne McCaffrey book Dragonsong

Source: Dragonsong

Hope, Singing, Joy

“Sometimes when I'm alone, I take the pearl from where it lives in my pocket and try to remember the boy with the bread, the strong arms that warded off nightmares on the train, the kisses in the arena. To make myself put a name to the thing I've lost. But what's the use? It's gone. He's gone. Whatever existed between us is gone. All that's left is my promise to kill Snow. I tell myself this ten times a day.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 195)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)

Boy, Kiss, Strong, Time

“Thanks for not freaking out," I said.
"Oh, I'm freaking out," Paul promised, his eyes wide. "I just think it's awesome!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Thinking

“I promise you, no one judges me more harshly than I do myself; I caused a brilliant wreckage. Some say I fell from grace; they’re being kind. I didn’t fall – I dove.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Mermaid Chair

Source: The Mermaid Chair

“iv.

who was it
who invented
size zero?

who was it
who promised
that if you got
to a certain point
you would no
longer
be?”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“As long as she was falling in love with me, I might as well start making her promises I didn't intend to keep.”

Michael Chabon book Wonder Boys

Source: Wonder Boys

Love

“I'm afraid I'll lose myself in you, Gideon. I'm scared I'll lose the part of me I worked so hard to get back.""
""I'd never let that happen."" he promised fiercely. ”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Chapter 8, pg 140
Source: Reflected in You

Parting

“Prison is where you promise yourself the right to live.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

“You promised me I could measure your… particular abilities."
"Promised?" Kaladin asked. "I don't remember a promise."
"You grunted”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Context: I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

Men, God, Hate, People

“Her curiosity was too much for her. She felt almost as if she could hear the books whispering on the other side of the half-open door. They were promising her a thousand unknown stories, a thousand doors into worlds she had never seen before.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books, World

“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.”

Benjamin Graham book The Intelligent Investor

Source: The Intelligent Investor

“Of all treasures of knowledge, the most vital is the knowledge of God, his existence, powers, love, and promises.”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Source: Faith Precedes the Miracle

Love, God, Knowledge

“The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.”

Ray Bradbury book The Golden Apples of the Sun

The Murderer (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
Context: Then I went in and shot the televisor, that insidious beast, that Medusa, which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little, but myself always going back, going back hoping and waiting until—bang!

People, Night