ProverbCommunication
English origin1738
English origin1738Promises are too much like pie-crusts, made to be broken.
Meaning: Keeping promises requires discipline; convenience often trumps commitment, especially when sacrifice becomes necessary.
Origin: Jonathan Swift's Polite Conversation (1738), a satire stuffed with the clichés of fashionable talk, has "Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken." A pie crust exists to be cut open, and some promises, the joke goes, are made in the same spirit.
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