Precept & Practice – MAY 12 – Advice

He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it. 

Von Knebel

A man takes contradiction and advice much more easily than people think, only he will not bear it when violently given, even though it be well founded.

Hearts are like flowers:  they remain open to the softly-falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain, 

Richter

Giving advice is a very peculiar affair;  and when one has looked round the world for a time and seen how the most cleverly designed enterprises fail, and how the most absurd often turn out well, one becomes chary of giving any one advice.   There is, at bottom, a certain restraint in him who asks for counsel, and an overweening feeling of superiority in him who gives it.   One should only advise about matters in which one is prepared to co-operate.

Goethe

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW