Niccolò Machiavelli on advice

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But this must happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand, to be produced immediately.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first is excellent, the second good, and the third useless.

Accept good advice gracefully⁠—as long as it doesn’t interfere with what you intended to do in the first place.

Gene Brown

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Oscar Wilde1854–1900An Ideal Husband (1895)

Never take anything for granted.

Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Speech at Salthill (5 October 1864)