Advice Quotes
Shakespeare and Alexander Pope tie for the most entries, with Charles Churchill, La Rochefoucauld and Franklin behind. The dependable sourced lines are the cynical ones. Wilde, in An Ideal Husband (1895), says he always passes on good advice because it is never of any use to oneself, and Bierce, in 1911, defines advice as the smallest current coin. Disraeli’s definition of critics, in Lothair (1870), as men who have failed in literature and art is filed here too.
Flagged: “Many receive advice, few profit by it,” credited to Publilius Syrus and disputed; “Most men give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain,” credited to Tom Stoppard, and “When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice,” credited to Saul Bellow, both marked misattributed.
The most useful criticism in any art [form] is new work done with the same tools [as previous art].
In great straits and when hope is small, the boldest counsels are the safest.
It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.
If a man love to give advice, it is a sure sign that he himself wanteth it.
The secret counsels of princes are a troublesome burden to such as have only to execute them.
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Never judge a critic by your agreement with his likes and dislikes.