proverb · Words worth keeping
A promise is a debt.
A promise is a debt.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
A promise as a debt pictures a commitment as something owed to another. It gives an assurance the weight of an obligation.
What the words are saying
The debt is a moral image rather than an automatic legal or financial classification. A useful interpretation checks the commitment’s actual terms and feasibility. Keeping faith can include honest communication and agreed revision when circumstances change; the image does not justify unlimited demands or coercion.
Everyday example
Someone records an agreed commitment and discusses a necessary change with the person affected.
When to use it
Use it to discuss responsibility for an undertaking with its limits considered.
What it does not mean
No legal debt, unlimited obligation or right to compel harmful fulfilment is established.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided proverb reference
Supplied reference A; unit 971; PDF page 135
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.