Advice quotes
2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside advice — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"We can see now that we Americans were caught unprepared, because we were ordinary human beings, following the best advice we had at the time. No one would have guessed in 1941 that we would be attacked in such an unsportsmanlike manner as we were. No one could have visualized Pearl Harbor, either out there or in Washington. But if we had known then what we know now, we would have expected an attack in 1941."
"My advice for anyone wanting to direct is that nobody is going to hand you an opportunity. You have to create your own opportunities and not take no for an answer."
"Here's my advice to you: don't marry until you can tell yourself that you've done all you could, and until you've stopped loving the women you've chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you'll be cruelly and irremediably mistaken. Marry when you're old and good for nothing...Otherwise all that's good and lofty in you will be lost."
"Give not advice without being asked, and when desired, do it briefly."
"The great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm."
"I'll have 15 letters today from mostly young kids who don't like what's going on and want to do something about it, and [they ask me] if I can give them some advice as to what they should do, or can I tell them what to read or something."
"I don't think I have the right to give someone advice when I don't know them."
"Do what you know you ought to do. Why should we ever go abroad, even across the way, to ask a neighbor's advice? There is a nearerneighbor within us incessantly telling us how we should behave. But we wait for the neighbor without to tell us of some false, easier way."
"The true reformer does not want time, nor money, nor coöperation, nor advice. What is time but the stuff delay is made of? And depend upon it, our virtue will not live on the interest of our money. He expects no income, but outgoes; so soon as we begin to count the cost, the cost begins. And as for advice, the information floating in the atmosphere of society is as evanescent and unserviceable to him as gossamer for clubs of Hercules."
"To our enemies all over the world who plan America's demise, please take my advice. Give up now. No matter what, you will lose. You will lose it all."
"I do not mean to moralise but to those who do, I would give this advice : if you mean ultimately to deprive the best things and states of all all honour and worth then continue to talk about them as you have been doing!"
"Whoever gives advice to a sick person acquires a feeling of superiority over him, whether the advice be accepted or rejected."
"One can give advice comfortably from a safe port."
"My advice to girls: first, don't smoke - to excess; second, don't drink - to excess; third, don't marry - to excess."
"Never learn to do anything: if you don't learn, you'll always find someone else to do it for you."
"Never run after you own hat - others will be delighted to do it; why spoil their fun?"
"Do your duty today and repent tomorrow."
"When you catch an adjective, kill it - perhaps the best possible advice for budding writers."
"I have never yet found that the advice of a Sister could prevent a young Man's being in love if he chose it."
"Take advice, but not orders. Only give yourself orders."
