"I have been asked what I mean by 'word of honor.' I will tell you: place me behind bars prison walls-walls as high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground-there is a personality that in some way or another I might be able to escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I out of that circle? No, I never! I'd die first." 

-Karl G. Maeser 

This quote means that some people will say they will give their honor but don't  prove it nor show it. There are other people who say and give their honor and express their honor to the world. For example if you give your honor to a person that you will show up and help them with something and then bail on them without even given an excuse to support why than that is giving your honor without proving  it. Another example is that you are really counting on a person to finish an assignment and you give your honor to finish it but you don't complete it. That is not having honor that is breaking a promise.