These advice quotes are a little all over the spectrum, much like advice itself!

Some will make you think before giving advice, others will change the way you receive advice, and some will have you rolling on the floor.

Be sure to leave a comment after you finish reading and let us know what you thought!

What is the deal with advice?

Advice is one of those complicated things—people always want to give it but rarely listen to it!

Advice has been so popular that newspapers dedicated an entire column to it, with people like “Dear Abby.”

However, what exactly is advice?

Is there a reason so many of us want to give it to others but often have problems with taking our own advice?

First, advice is defined as “guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action.”

There are two types of advice: unsolicited and solicited advice.

Unsolicited is advice that people give you that you did not ask for.

Conversely, solicited advice happens when you ask someone for their opinion or advice.

There are many reasons that people offer their advice to you, even when you didn’t ask for it.

Sometimes unsolicited advice is well-intentioned, but not so much at other times.

Keep reading through these advice quotes to learn more about why people give advice and why we often struggle to heed our own words.

Thought-provoking advice quotes

1. “The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone’s advice.” — Eddie Murphy

2. “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” — Erica Jong

3. “Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.” — George Chapman

4. “You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.” — John Steinbeck

5. “Women don’t like advice. They don’t want you to fix their problems, they just want you to listen.” — Shawn Wayans

6. “All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and to receive help from other people.” — Alexis Carrel

7. “To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesn’t know what to do or that he can’t do it on his own.” — John Gray

8. “Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

9. “I don’t like to give advice. I like to give people information because everyone’s life is different, and everyone’s journey is different.” — Dolly Parton

10. “There’s no path to success. Everyone constructs their own path. The important thing is to follow your heart. Find your niche, is my best advice.” — Karol G

Funny advice quotes

11. “When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.” — Saul Bellow

12. “My best piece of style advice is to keep your wardrobe small and love everything in it.” — Maye Musk

13. “If stock market experts were so expert, they would be buying stock, not selling advice.” — Norman Augustine

14. “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.” — Thornton Wilder

15. “Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!” — George Bernard Shaw

16. “Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.” — Warren Buffett

17. “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

18. “I ask only child-free pals for parenting advice because they’re the only ones sane and well-rested enough to have any real insight.” — Glennon Doyle Melton

19. “Never take advice from anyone in a tie. They’ll bankrupt you. Don’t ask a general for advice on war and don’t ask a broker for advice on money.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

20. “When your mother asks, ‘Do you want a piece of advice?’ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it, anyway.” — Erma Bombec

Advice quotes from the wise

21. “Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.” — Harper Lee

22. “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” — Benjamin Franklin

23. “Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

24. “To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.” — Wilson Mizner

25. “Great advice comes from people that have been around a lot longer than you.” — Zac Efron

26. “Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life.” — Plautus

27. “In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.” — Winston Churchill

28. “Ask a woman’s advice, and whatever she advises, Do the very reverse and you’re sure to be wise.” — Thomas Moore

29. “Don’t follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.” — Joan Rivers

30. “There is no substitute for kindness in the home. This lesson I learned from my father. He always listened to my mother’s advice. As a result, he was a better, wiser, and kinder man.” — Joseph B. Wirthlin

Quotes about good advice

31. “The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.” — Matthew McConaughey

32. “The best advice I’ve received is to be yourself. The best artists do that.” — Frank Gehry

33. “The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.” — David Bailey

34. “She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).” — Lewis Carroll

35. “Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it.” — Agatha Christie

36. “The greatest luxury of riches is that they enable you to escape so much good advice.” — Arthur Helps

37. “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

38. “Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.” — Francois de La Rochefoucauld

39. “I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay

40. “He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.” — Francis Bacon

Short advice quotes

41. “Never give advice in a crowd.” — Pope Paul VI

42. “Whatever advice you give, be short.” — Horace

43. “No enemy is worse than bad advice.” — Sophocles

44. “Don’t give advice unless you’re asked.” — Amy Alcott

45. “Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.” — Aesop

46. “Listen to advice, but follow your heart.” — Conway Twitty

47. “Don’t climb into a fridge. That’s my advice.” — Sandi Toksvig

48. “I could never give relationship advice to anybody!” — Rihanna

49. “The only real advice you can give anyone is to keep writing.” — David Sedaris

50. “There is nothing men are so generous of as advice.” — François de La Rochefoucauld

Reasons people give advice

I would like to think that most of the time, people give advice for truly altruistic purposes.

This means that people give you advice because they really think they can help you, and they desire to help make your life uncomplicated or better.

Other reasons that come from a good place are friendship and excitement.

Friends often think their advice is helpful and that it is part of being a good friend—even if you didn’t ask for it.

Other times, people get excited that they have been through something similar and want to share their experiences.

However, there are less noble reasons that people give advice.

These reasons include neediness, narcissism, and judgment.

Some people really need to feel needed and valued—like they have something to offer.

While this motive isn’t necessarily bad—it isn’t altruistic either.

It is done for their own sense of worth and not a desire to help someone else.

Narcissism and judgment, however, do not come from any kind of desire to help.

Narcissists will give advice because they need to be more “in the know” than you.

They want to just be right and have you follow what they think the best course of action is.

Advice from someone who is judging you can often feel insulting.

These types of advice givers want you to change your behavior.

Check out this article for reasons it is so hard to follow our own advice sometimes.

Also, let us know what your thoughts about advice are in the comment section below.