"Promises are not to be kept, if..." - Quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Promises are not to be kept, if the keeping of them is to prove harmful to those to whom you have made them.
More by Marcus Tullius Cicero
More on Promises
“Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise.”
“Never make a promise without a plan.”
“I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told, and I have squandered my resistance, for a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises. All lies in jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest...la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lala-la-la-la-la...”
More on Ethics
“Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.”
“If the situation was such that there was only one learned lama or genuine practitioner alive, a person whose death would cause the whole of Tibet to lose all hope of keeping its Buddhist way of life, then it is conceivable that in order to protect that one person it might be justified for one or 10 enemies to be eliminated if there was no other way.”
“You have to comply, you have to obey - or you'd better resign and leave. But that is also the mark of a great leader - somebody who, in the presence of inner conflict, will do the right thing.”