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Promises: Quotations from Shakespearian Quotations

Promising is the very air o' the time: it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever the duller for his act: and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed is quite out of use. To promise, is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will and testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.— T. A. v. 1.

His promises were, as he then was, mighty; But his performance, as he now is, nothing. H. VIII. iv. 2 I see, Sir, you are liberal in offers: You taught me-first to beg; and now, methinks, You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd.— M. V. iv. 1

Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens, That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next.— H. VI. PT. 1. i. 6

The king is kind; and, well we know, the king Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.— H. IV. PT. I. iv. 3