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Advice

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Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind. ~ Ben Sira
Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties. ~ Aesop

Advice (also called exhortation) is a form of relating personal or institutional opinions, belief systems, values, recommendations or guidance about certain situations relayed in some context to another person, group or party often offered as a guide to action and/or conduct. Put a little more simply, an advice message is a recommendation about what might be thought, said, or otherwise done to address a problem, make a decision, or manage a situation.

Saint Augustine:Give then to the poor; I beg, I advise, I charge, I Command you. Give to the poor whatever ye will.
Jeremy Bentham:Destitute of the lawful means of supporting his rank, his dignity presents a motive for malversation, and his power furnishes the means.
Gerald Ford:The exclusive right to declare war, the duty to advise and consent on the part of the Senate, the power of the purse on the part of the House are ample authority for the legislative branch and should be jealously guarded.
Alphabetized by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P -Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · External links

A

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  • A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
  • He can always pick out the Right Kind for the Other Fellow.
    • George Ade, "The Girl Who Took Notes and Got Wise and Then Fell Down".
  • Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
    • Aesop, The Fox and the Goat (~500 B.C.).
  • It is every man's own fault if he does not take such advice as will be sure to lead him right.

B

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  • The worst men often give the best advice.
    Our deeds are sometimes better than our thoughts.
    • Philip James Bailey, Festus (1813), scene A Village Feast. Evening, line 917. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Advice, n. The smallest current coin.
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
  • What the world wants iz good examples, not so mutch advice; advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.
  • Un fat quelquefois ouvre un avis important.
    • A fop sometimes gives important advice.
    • Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, L'Art Poétique, IV. 50. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet,
    To think how mony counsels sweet,
    How mony lengthened, sage advices,
    The husband frae the wife despises.
    • Robert Burns, Tam o' Shanter (1793), line 33. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • And may you better reck the rede,
    Than ever did th' adviser.
    • Robert Burns, Epistle to a Young Friend. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Who cannot give good counsel? 'tis cheap, it cost them nothing.
  • She had a good opinion of advice,
    Like all who give and eke receive it gratis.
    For which small thanks are still the market price,
    Even where the article at highest rate is.
    • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XV, Stanza 29. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

C

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  • A woman's advice is not worth much, but he who does not heed it is a fool.
  • Dicen, que el primer consejo
    Ha de ser de la muger.
    • They say that the best counsel is that of woman.
    • Calderon, El Médico de su Honra, I. 2. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Let no man value at a little price
    A virtuous woman's counsel; her wing'd spirit
    Is feather'd oftentimes with heavenly words.
    • George Chapman, The Gentleman Usher, Act IV, scene 1. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • It was a subject which she had studied for examinations and on which she had thereafter advised a number of clients: she naturally did not suppose, in these circumstances that it had anything to do with real life.
  • 'Twas good advice, and meant,
    "My son, be good."
    • George Crabb, The Learned Boy, Volume V, Tale XXI. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Advice is more agreeable in the mouth than in the ear.
    • Mason Cooley (1927-2002), U.S. aphorist. City Aphorisms, Second Selection (1985).

D

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  • Leaders we've helped to diminish because they did not fit the mold we think they should fit, no matter how ill advised that thought may be.

E

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  • It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, — always do what you are afraid to do.

F

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G

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Mahatma Gandhi:And so I receive anonymous letters advising me that I must not interfere with the progress of non-co-operation even though popular violence may break out.
  • Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.
    • James Geary, American journalist, writer, and aphorist; as quoted from James Geary's website, "My Aphorisms" section.
  • Askhole n. ~ A person who constantly asks for your advice, yet ALWAYS does the complete opposite of what you told them to do.
    • The signature "green eyed lady 13", Urban Dictionary (2014)

H

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  • I advise you to say the thing you want to say. When I began to preach, another of my Nestors said to me, "Edward, I give you one piece of advice. When you have written your sermon, leave off the introduction and leave off the conclusion. The introduction seems to me always written to show that the minister can preach two sermons on one text. Leave that off, then, and it will do for another Sunday. The conclusion is written to apply to the congregation the doctrine of the sermon. But, if your hearers are such fools that they cannot apply the doctrine to themselves, nothing you can say will help them." In this advice was much wisdom. It consists, you see, in advising to begin, at the beginning, and to stop when you have done.
  • Know when to speake; for many times it brings
    Danger to give the best advice to kings.
    • Robert Herrick, Caution in Councell. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Quidquid præcipies esto brevis.
    • Whatever advice you give, be short.
    • Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), CCCXXXV. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

I

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J

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Thomas Jefferson:A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness.
  • Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't...

K

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Black Kettle:...I was the only man who persevered to be friend of the white man since they have come and cleaned out (robbed) our lodges, horses, and everything else, it is hard for me to believe white men anymore.
  • My shame is as big as the earth, although I will do what my friends advise me to do. I once thought that I was the only man who persevered to be friend of the white man since they have come and cleaned out (robbed) our lodges, horses, and everything else, it is hard for me to believe white men anymore.

L

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Charles Lindbergh:What pilot has not been in positions where he was in danger and where perfect judgment would have advised against going? But when a man is caught in such a position he is judged only by his error and seldom given credit.
Nelson Mandela:I explained to the crowd that my voice was hoarse from a cold and that my physician had advised me not to attend. "I hope that you will not disclose to him that I have violated his instructions."
  • We give advice, but we do not inspire conduct.
  • Advice generally does require some very powerful argument to be taken.
  • Easy ’tis advice to give,
    Hard it is advice to take
    Years that lived—and years to live,
    Wide and weary difference make.
  • In rebus asperis et tenui spe fortissima quæque consilia tutissima sunt.
    • In great straits and when hope is small, the boldest counsels are the safest.
    • Livy, Annales, XXV. 38. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Remember Lot's wife.
    • Luke, XVII. 32. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

M

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  • No adventures mucho tu riqueza
    Por consejo de hombre que ha pobreza.
    • Hazard not your wealth on a poor man's advice.
    • Manuel, Conde Lucanor. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • C'est une importune garde, du secret des princes, à qui n'en à que faire.
    • The secret counsels of princes are a troublesome burden to such as have only to execute them.
    • Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III. 1. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

N

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  • When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
  • Primo dede mulieris consilio, secundo noli.
    • Take the first advice of a woman and not the second.
    • Gilbertus Cognatus Noxeranus, Sylloge. See J. J. Grynæus, Adagio, p. 130. Langius, Polyanthea Col (1900) same sentiment. (Prends le premier conseil d'une femme et non le second. French for same). Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

O

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  • Tony Bushell had a friend in the Welsh Guards whose father had said to him on his twenty-first birthday: "Three pieces of invaluable advice for you, my boy: nevah hunt south of the Thames, nevah drink port after champagne and nevah have your wife in the morning lest something bettah should turn up during the day."

P

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Plutarch:He that first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defense against a knave, was but an ill teacher, advising us to commit wickedness to secure ourselves.
  • Do not take counsel of your fears.
    • George Patton, The Patton Papers: 1940-1945
  • If you can't even clean up your own room, who the hell are you to give advice to the world?
    • Jordan Peterson, Message to Milennials: How to Change the World – Properly (2016)
  • Consilia qui dant prava cautis hominibus,
    Et perdunt operam et deridentur turpiter.
    • Those who give bad advice to the prudent, both lose their pains and are laughed to scorn.
    • Phædrus, Fabulæ, I. 25. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Consilia qui dant prava cautis hominibus,
    Et perdunt operam et deridentur turpiter.
    • It is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others.
    • Phædrus, Fabulæ, I. 9.
  • People who give me advice... I reckon they're talking to themselves.
    • Nic Pizzolatto, said by Detective Cohle in the television show True Detective (2014).
  • Without asking anybody's advice, I turned myself insane sitting under the same sun and the same clouds. I believed all along, one day everyone would go mad just to see me sane.
  • In the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
    • Proverbs, XI. 14; XXIV. 6. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • The way of fools is right in their own eyes,

but those who listen to advice are the wise.

    • Proverbs 12:15, New American Bible Revised Edition
  • Never give advice unasked.
    • Proverbs in: Mrs. E.B. Mawr, National Proverbs in Ten Languages (1885).

Q

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R

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Theodore Roosevelt:Mr. Taft never asked my advice in the matter, but if he had asked it, I should have emphatically advised him against thus stating publicly his religious belief.
  • Les vieillards aiment à donner de bons préceptes, pour se consoler de n'être plus en état de donner de mauvais exemples.
    • Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer provide bad examples.
    • François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678), Maxim 93.

S

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  • If a man love to give advice, it is a sure sign that he himself wanteth it.
  • Vom sichern Port lässt sich's gemächlich rathen.
    • One can advise comfortably from a safe port.
    • Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, I. 1. 146. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
    • Mary Schmich, Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young (1997)
  • Bosom up my counsel,
    You'll find it wholesome.
  • When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again.
    • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act II, scene 4, line 76. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
    Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.
  • I pray thee cease thy counsel,
    Which falls into mine ears as profitless
    As water in a sieve.
  • Direct not him, whose way himself will choose;
    'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.
  • Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind.
  • Seek no advice from a woman about her rival, from a coward about war, from a merchant about business, from a buyer about value, from a miser about generosity, from a cruel person about well-being, from a worthless worker about his work, from a seasonal laborer about the harvest, from an idle slave about a great task— pay no attention to any advice they give.
  • The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right. That has been my secret, and I have never had any quarrels. What if people are fools or knaves, it is not your house-keeping and you had far better leave them to their fate. The more you try to prove yourselves in the right and D. in the wrong, the more you will confirm him in his own views. Nothing makes people more furious than being proved to be in the wrong; and even if you convince D. he will always hate you.
  • No one wants advice, only corroboration.
  • Many receive advice, only the wise profit by it.
    • Syrus, Maxim 152. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

T

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  • Che spesso avvien che ne' maggior perigli
    Son più audaci gli ottimi consigli.
    • For when last need to desperation driveth,
      Who dareth most he wisest counsel giveth.
    • Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme, VI. 6. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • A dead father's counsel, a wise son heedeth.
    • Esais Tegnèr, Fridthjof's Saga, Canto VIII. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Facile omnes, quum valemus, recta consilia ægrotis damus.
    • We all, when we are well, give good advice to the sick.
    • Terence, Andria, II. 1. 9. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
  • Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
    • J. R. R. Tolkien, Gildor Inglorion to Frodo in, The Lord of the Rings, from The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 3 (1954).
  • It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.

V

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Gore Vidal:I am at heart a propagandist, "he says," a tremendous hater, a tiresome nag, complacently positive that there is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.

W

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Frank Lloyd Wright:The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
Edmund Waller:...With such old counselors they did advise, And frequenting sacred groves grew wise.
  • I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

X

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  • To forget good counsel is to forget the experiences that prompted the soul to desire prudence: and when those are forgotten, it is not surprising that prudence itself is forgotten.

See also

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Wikipedia
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