In our anguish we struggle To elude Him, to lie to Him, yet His love observes His appalling promise; His predilection As we wander and weep is with us to the end, Minding our meanings, our least matter dear to Him.

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
^6  The Age of  Anxiety, pt.6, Epilogue.

British music is in a state of perpetual promise. It might almost be said to be one long promissory note.

-Beecham, SirThomas
Quoted in Harold  Atkins and  Archie Newman Beecham Stories (1978).

Like a christening, a wedding, a graduation ceremony, a holy war, a revolutioneven†a fireworksdisplay, agaudy promise of what life ought to be, not life itself.

-Cooke, (Alfred) Alistair
  Of elections. The Americans.

His moral character†was full of promise, but of no performance.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^4  Of Mr Pecksniff. Martin Chuzzlewit, ch.5.

The earth was made for Dombeyand Son to trade in, and thesunandmoonweremadetogivethemlight.Riversand seas were formed to float their ships; rainbowsgave them promise of fair weather; winds blew fororagainst their enterprises; stars and planets circled intheir orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of whichthey were the centre.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^8  Dombey and Son, ch.1.

I loved Estella† I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^1 Great Expectations, ch.29.

Uncorseted, her friendly bust Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  'Whispers of Immortality'.

Jazz music hashaunted America for seventy years.It has tempted us out of our lily-white reserve with its black promise of untrammeled joy.

-Holmes,John Clellon
  Preface to reprint of  The Horn.

My native country was full of youthful promise; Europe was rich in the accumulated treasures of age.

-Irving,Washington
^20  The Sketch Book,'The  Author's  Account of Himself'.

   Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

-Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich
  Press conference, NewYork, Oct.

Till I, high in the tower of my time Among familiar ruins, began to cry For accident, sickness, justice, war and crime, Because all died, because I had to die. The snow fell, the trees stood, the promise kept, And a child I slept.

-Nemerov, Howard
  New Poems,'The View from an  Attic Window'.

All the same, you know parentsöespecially step- parentsöare sometimes a disappointment to their children.Theydon'tfulfil thepromise oftheirearly years.

-Powell, Anthony Dymoke
  A Buyer's Market, ch.2.

God bless our good and gracious King Whose promise none relies on, Who never said a foolish thing Nor ever did a wise one.

-Rochester,JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of
Of Charles II (published1707).The verse was later changed to an epitaph ('Here lies a great and mighty king†').

   Apromisemadeisa debt unpaid,andthetrail hasits own stern code.

-Service, Robert William
  Songs of a Sourdough,'The Cremation of Sam McGhee'.