1. Make your bargain before beginning to plow.
Anonymous. Arab proverb.
2. You’ll have the legal authority to use my skin for lampshades so far as I can see.
Robert Bolt (1924-95) British screenwriter and dramatist. Referring to a punitive contract. Letter (July 1963)
3. Contracts are agreements made up of big words and little type.
Sam Ewing (1920-2001) U.S. author. Quoted in Saturday Evening Post (May 1993)
4. A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974) U.S. producer. Quoted in The Great Goldwyn (Alva Johnson; 1937)
5. A contract is a mutual promise.
William Paley (1743-1805) British theologian and philosopher. The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1784), bk. 3, pt. 1, ch. 6
6. Contract: an agreement that is binding on the weaker party.
Frederick Sawyer (b.1947) U.S. writer. Attrib.
7. Every law is a contract between the king and the people and therefore to be kept.
John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, antiquary, and politician. Table Talk (1689)
8. Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them.
Solon (638?-559? B.C.) Athenian statesman, legislator, and poet. Quoted in “Solon,” Parallel Lives (Plutarch; 1st century A.D.)
9. My style of dealmaking is quite simple and straightforward. I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.
Donald J. Trump (b.1946) U.S. real estate developer. Time (1989)
10. There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
- B. White (1899-1985) U.S. writer. Attrib.
