An honest man's word is as good as his bond.
Meaning: Integrity without documentation suffices; trustworthy character renders formal guarantees unnecessary.
Origin: A bond is a signed and sealed promise to pay. The saying claims that an honest person's spoken promise binds them just as firmly, A Scottish text of about 1500 already says a king's word should be a king's bond, and the London Stock Exchange took dictum meum pactum — my word is my bond — as its motto in 1801, when deals were struck on a handshake.
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