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| A great many shoes are worn out before a man does what he says. | 1 |
| A promise is a debt. German, Italian. | 2 |
| A promised dollar is not worth half. German. | 3 |
| All promises are either broken or kept. | 4 |
| Don’t promise what you cannot perform. Turkish. | 5 |
| Expect nothing from him who promises a great deal. Italian. | 6 |
| Fair promises bind fools. Italian. | 7 |
| Give no credit to great promises. | 8 |
| He loses his thanks who promises and delays. | 9 |
| He promises like a merchant-man, and pays like a man-of-war. | 10 |
| He ruins himself in promises and clears himself by giving nothing. French. | 11 |
| He that promises too much means nothing. | 12 |
| His promises are lighter than the breath that utters them. | 13 |
| In the land of promise a man may die of hunger. Dutch. | 14 |
| Lavish promises lessen credit. Horace. | 15 |
| Men apt to promise are apt to forget. | 16 |
| Neither promise wax to the saint, nor cakes to the child. Modern Greek. | 17 |
| No greater promisers than those who have nothing to give. Dutch. | 18 |
| Nothing weighs lighter than a promise. German. | 19 |
| Promise little and do much. | 20 |
| Promises and undressed cloth are apt to shrink. Danish. | 21 |
| Promises are for fools. | 22 |
| Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken. | 23 |
| Promises don’t fill the belly. German. | 24 |
| Promises fill no sack. German. | 25 |
| Promises make debts and debts make promises. Dutch. | 26 |
| Promises may make friends, but ’tis performance keeps them. | 27 |
| Promises must not fill the place of gifts. Latin. | 28 |
| Promising and performing are two things. French, Dutch. | 29 |
| Promising is not giving but serves to content fools. | 30 |
| Take heed, girl, of the promise of a man, for it will run like a crab. Spanish. | 31 |
| There is no piety in keeping an unjust promise. | 32 |
| There is no virtue in a promise unless it be kept. Danish. | 33 |
Thy promises are like Adonis’s garden,
That one day blossomed and fruitful were the next. Shakespeare. | 34 |
| To promise is easy, to keep it troublesome. Danish. | 35 |
| To promise more butter than bread. French. | 36 |
| To promise more carts than oxen. Italian. | 37 |
| To promise much means giving little. Portuguese. | 38 |
| When a man repeats a promise again and again he means to fail you. | 39 |
| Who makes no promises has none to perform. German. | 40 |
| Who promises much and does little, dines a fool on hope. German. | 41 |
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