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Advice Quotations

Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
Categories: Advice
Date: 1771
Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
George Washington The Rules of Civility
Categories: Advice
Date: 1748
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
Thomas Jefferson letter to Peter Carr
Categories: Advice
Date: August 19, 1785
It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.

Thomas Jefferson letter to Martha Jefferson
Categories: Advice
Date: May 5, 1787
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good, my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately.

Thomas Paine Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation
Categories: Advice, Virtue
Date: 1792
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle, is a species of vice.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack
Categories: Advice
Date: 1747
Strive to be the greatest man in your country, and you may be disappointed. Strive to be the best and you may succeed: he may well win the race that runs by himself.
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
Categories: Advice
Date: 1771
Human Felicity is produced not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack
Categories: Advice
Date: 1742
Have you something to do tomorrow; do it to-day.
James Wilson Lectures on Law
Categories: Advice
Date: 1791
In planning, forming, and arranging laws, deliberation is always becoming, and always useful.

John Jay The Federalist Papers Federalist No. 2
Categories: Advice
Date: October 31, 1787
This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a ban of brethren, united to each other by the strongest of ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack
Categories: Advice
Date: 1748
A Spoonful of Honey will catch more Flies than a Gallon of Vinegar.

Thomas Jefferson letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith
Categories: Advice
Date: February 21, 1825
This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run; and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell.

Benjamin Franklin Brave Men at Fires
Categories: Advice
Date: 1733
This kind of Industry seems to me a great Virtue. He that is afraid to leave a warm Bed, and to walk in the Dark, and to dawb or tear his Clothes or his Skin; He that makes no Difference between Virtue and Vice, and takes no Pleasure in Hospitality; and He that cares not who suffers, if he himself gains by it, or suffers not; will not any one of them be industriously concern'd (if their own Dwellings are out of Danger) in preserving from devouring Flames either private or publick Buildings.
Joel Barlow Prospectus of a National Institution to be Established in the United States
Categories: Advice
Date: 1806
The encouragement of a taste for elegant luxuries discourages the relish for luxuries that are gross and sensual, debilitating to the body, and demoralising to the mind. These last, it must be acknowledged, are prevailing in our country; they are perhaps the natural growth of domestic affluence and civil liberty.
Thomas Paine The American Crisis, No. 1
Categories: Advice
Date: December 23, 1776
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Benjamin Franklin The Way to Wealth
Categories: Advice, Poverty
Date: 1758
Sloth, like Rust, consumes faster than Labour wears; while the used Key is always bright... But dost thou love Life, then do not squander Time, for that's the stuff Life is made of... How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that The sleeping Fox catches no Poultry, and that There will be sleeping enough in the Grave.
Benjamin Franklin The Way to Wealth
Categories: Advice
Date: 1758
"If you would be wealthy", says he in another Almanack, "think of Saving as well as of Getting: The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her Outgoes are greater than her Incomes." Away then with your expensive Follies, and you will not then have so much Cause to complain of Hard Times, heavy Taxes, and chargeable Families.
George Washington Letter to Bushrod Washington
Categories: Advice, Character
Date: January 15, 1783
Do not conceive that fine Clothes make fine Men, any more than fine feathers make fine Birds. A plain genteel dress is more admired and obtains more credit than lace and embroidery in the Eyes of the judicious and sensible.
George Washington letter to Charles Pettit
Categories: Advice
Date: August 16, 1788
[T]he 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.

Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanac
Categories: Advice
Date: June, 1746
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
George Washington letter to Philip Schuyler
Categories: Advice
Date: July 15, 1777
We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Advice, Foreign Policy
Date: 1796
The Great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Thomas Jefferson letter to John Sinclair
Categories: Advice
Date: 1791
It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.

Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack
Categories: Advice
Date: June, 1746
Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

Benjamin Franklin Advice to a Young Tradesman
Categories: Advice
Date: 1748
Remember, that Time is Money.

Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack
Categories: Advice
Date: 1735
Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.
Benjamin Franklin Advice to Young Tradesman
Categories: Advice
Date: 1748
Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

George Washington On Public Speaking
Categories: Advice
Date: November 10, 1787
Speak seldom, but to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents, and, in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of the subject.
Thomas Jefferson letter to David Harding
Categories: Advice
Date: April 20, 1824
I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as preeminent specimens of logic, taste and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.
George Washington Letter to Bushrod Washington
Categories: Advice, Character, Virtue
Date: January 15, 1783
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks and adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Ronald Reagan Commencement Address, Eureka College, Eureka, Illinois
Categories: Advice
Date: May 9, 1992
Live each day to the fullest. Live each day with enthusiasm, optimism and hope. If you do, I am convinced that your contribution to this wonderful experiment we call America will be profound.