Advice

Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind. ~ Ben Sira

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.

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

• A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
  • Joseph Addison, The Spectator (1712).

• 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.
  • William Henry Ashurst, Goodtitle v. Otway (1797), 7 T. R. 420.

• He Marcus Aurelius Antoninus advises us to examine well all the impressions on our minds (φαντασίαι) and to form a right judgment of them, to make just conclusions, and to inquire into the meanings of words, and so far to apply Dialectic;...
  • Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, quoted in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, p. 46.

B

• 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.
  • Josh Billings, The Complete Works of Josh Billings (1842).

• 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.
  • Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).

• 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

• A woman's advice is not worth much, but he who does not heed it is a fool.
  • Pedro Calderón de la Barca, El Medico de su Honra. (1637)

• Dicen, que el primer consejo
  Ha de ser de la muger.
  • They say that the best counsel is that of woman.
  • Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 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.

• Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most, always like it the least.
  • Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, letter to his son, 29th January 1748.

• 'Twas good advice, and meant,
  "My son, be good."
  • George Crabbe, 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

• We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it!
  • Edsger W. Dijkstra, "The Humble Programmer", Communications of the ACM 15 (10), (October 1972): pp. 859–866.

E

• It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, — always do what you are afraid to do.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series (1841).

F

• The first Degree of Folly, is to conceit one’s self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise Counsel.
  • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1744).

• Fools need Advice most, but wise Men only are the better for it.
  • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1758).

• Who says Jack is not generous? he is always fond of giving: and cares not for receiving. –What? Why; Advice.
  • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1740)

• We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.
  • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1758).

• He that advised thee not to let the Sun set in thine anger, did not command thee to trust a deceiving Enemy next Morning.
  • Thomas Fuller (writer), in Thomas Fuller, M. D., 1654 – 1734, Introductio ad prudentiam, Part II (1727).

G

• 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

• The greatest luxury of riches is that they enable you to escape so much good advice. The rich are always advising the poor, but the poor seldom return the compliment.
  • Helps, in Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, Volume 3, p. 469.

• 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.

• The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "The Path of Law" 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897).
• I had neither expert aid nor advice. I studied no courses in writing; until a year or so ago, I never read a book by anybody advising writers how to write.
  • Robert E Howard, in Dark Valley Destiny: The Life of Robert E. Howard, p. 156.

• 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.

J

• Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't...
  • Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life (1977).

K

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.

• ...a scientist has the additional responsibility that comes with being a specialist: explaining science to the public, advising of its usefulness and benefits, and warning of its dangers and disadvantages.This is the responsibility of a specialist.
  • Larkin Kerwin, in Visions of Canada: The Alan B. Plaunt Memorial Lectures, 1958 – 1992, p. 492.

• 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.
  • Black Kettle, in Congressional Serial Set, p. 704.

L

• We give advice, but we do not inspire conduct.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxim 403. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

• Easy ’tis advice to give,
  Hard it is advice to take
  Years that lived—and years to live,
  Wide and weary difference make.
  • Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835 (1834), 'The Fairy of the Fountains'

• 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

• 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

• 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.
  • Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude.

• 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.

P

• 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 Rust Cohle in the television miniseries True Detective (2014).

• Be niggards of advice on no pretense;
  For the worst avarice is that of sense.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709), line 578. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

• 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

• Though thou hast ever so many counsellors, yet do not forsake the counsel of thy own soul.
  • Proverbs in: Henry George Bohn; John Ray (1899). A Hand-book of Proverbs: Comprising an Entire Republication of Ray's Collection of English Proverbs, with His Additions from Foreign Languages, and a Complete Alphabetical Index. p. 529. Retrieved on 31 July 2013. 

R

• 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

• If a man love to give advice, it is a sure sign that he himself wanteth it.
  • George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, “Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections,” Complete Works (Oxford:1912), p. 244.

• 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.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act I, scene 1, line 112. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

• 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.
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act IV, scene 1, line 8. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

• I pray thee cease thy counsel,
  Which falls into mine ears as profitless
  As water in a sieve.
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act V, scene 1, line 3. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

• Direct not him, whose way himself will choose;
  'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard II (c. 1595), Act II, scene 1, line 29. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

• Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind.
  • Ben Sira, Sirach, 37:9 DRB

• 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.
  • Ben Sira, Sirach, 37:11 NABRE

• 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.
  • Hannah Whitall Smith, Philadelphia Quaker: The Letters of Hannah Whitall Smith (1950), p. 146 (part_5, p. 3 in linked document).

• No one wants advice, only corroboration.
  • John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961).

• 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

• 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.

• What question can be here? Your own true heart
  Must needs advise you of the only part:
  That may be claim'd again which was but lent,
  And should be yielded with no discontent;
  Not surely can we find herein a wrong,
  That it was left us enjoy for so long.
  • Richard Chenevix Trench, in English Verse: Lyrics of the XIXth century, p. 168.

• 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.
  • The Portrait Of Mr. W. H. (1889), p. 5.

V

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.

• 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.
  • Gore Vidal, in Cultural Criticism, 1969-1990: From Architectural Damages to Press ..., Volume 6, p. 132.

W

• I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
  • Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1895), Act I.

• If only the last of these is justifiable, all are understandable concerns. But it is hard to see what can be the purpose of musicology if not to advise people on what to hear and how to hear it.
  • Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, in Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music, p. 3.

• The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
  • Frank Lloyd Wright, in Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, p. 19.

X

• 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.
  • Xenophon, Memorabilia

See also

• Consciousness
• Mind
• Psychiatry
• Psychoanalysis
• Psychology

External links

• "Consequences of Following Advice": A Poem by Roy E. Peterson, The Society of Classical Poets (October 7, 2024)