108 Inspirational Advice Quotes

In a world where challenges can often overshadow the brighter moments, a few wise words can offer the perfect spark of inspiration. Whether you’re seeking motivation for personal growth, encouragement in the face of adversity, or just a gentle reminder of life’s beauty, the right quote can resonate deeply. We’ve curated a selection of the top 108 inspirational advice quotes that encapsulate pearls of wisdom from some of the greatest thinkers, leaders, and dreamers. Join us on this literary journey and allow these powerful quotes to uplift your spirit and guide your steps forward.

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

2. “It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.” - Anne Tyler

3. “What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.” - Maya Angelou

4. “Be silent and safe — silence never betrays you; Be true to your word and your work and your friend; Put least trust in him who is foremost to praise you,Nor judge of a road till it draw to the end.” - John Boyle O'Reilly

5. “Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” - Douglas Adams

6. “No one asked you to be happy. Get to work.” - Colette

7. “It don't do you no nevermind to tell nobody nothing.” - Thomas McGuane

8. “The Four Agreements1. Be impeccable with your word.2. Don’t take anything personally.3. Don’t make assumptions.4. Always do your best. ” - Don Miguel Ruiz

9. “There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.” - Charles Proteus Steinmetz

10. “I realize that advice is worth what it costs--that is, nothing.” - Douglas MacArthur

11. “A verbal contract is worth about as much as the paper it's written on.” - Samuel Goldwyn

12. “Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.” - Theodore Roosevelt

13. “The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” - Douglas Adams

14. “Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.” - Maya Angelou

15. “People make mistakes, it's just part of life. But, it's what we do with those mistakes that matters. What matters is what we learn from the mistakes, not what the mistake is.” - Chris Hankin

16. “Talk about turning lemons into lemonade!” - Catherine Hapka

17. “In a world so redolent with wonder, how can we allow ourselves to conduct our daily lives with so little insight, such absence of dignity?” - Bruce Sterling

18. “Don't go looking for boys in the darkThey will say pretty things thenleave you with scars.Do go looking for boys in the parkFor that is where the true gentlemen are.” - Anna Godbersen

19. “I don't think anyone can give you advice when you've got a broken heart.” - Britney Spears

20. “You come to me for advice, but you can't cope with anything you don't recognize. Hmmm. So we'll have to tell you something you already know but make it sound like news, eh Well, business as usual , I suppose.” - Douglas Adams

21. “You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.” - Adrian Tan

22. “Be hated. One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself.” - Adrian Tan

23. “So okay― there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You've blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want.” - Stephen King

24. “Rules for Living by Olivia Joules1. Never panic. Stop, breathe, think.2. No one is thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, just like you.3. Never change haircut or color before an important event.4. Nothing is either as bad or good as it seems.5. Do as you would be done by, e.g. thou shalt not kill.6. It is better to buy one expensive thing that you really like than several cheap ones that you only quite like.7. Hardly anything matters: if you get upset, ask yourself, "Does it really matter?"8. The key to success lies in how you pick yourself up from failure.9. Be honest and kind.10. Only buy clothes that make you feel like doing a small dance.11. Trust your instincts, not your overactive imagination.12. When overwhelmed by disaster, check if it's really a disaster by doing the following: (a) think, "Oh, fuck it," (b) look on the bright side, and if that doesn't work, look on the funny side. If neither of the above works then maybe it is a disaster so turn to items 1 and 4.13. Don't expect the world to be safe or life to be fair.” - Helen Fielding

25. “I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.” - Robert A. Heinlein

26. “If thou wouldst seek justice, thyself must be just. ” - Stephen R. Lawhead

27. “To share is precious, pure and fair.Don't play with something you should cherish for life. Don't you wanna care, ain't it lonely out there?” - Marvin Gaye

28. “People who ask our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to give it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly.” - Brendan Francis Brown

29. “Anyone who is willing to work and is serious about it will certainly find a job. Only you must not go to the man who tells you this, for he has no job to offer and doesn't know anyone who knows of a vacancy. This is exactly the reason why he gives you such generous advice, out of brotherly love, and to demonstrate how little he knows the world.” - B. Traven

30. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” - Abraham Lincoln

31. “Know thyself, presume not God to scan;The proper study of mankind is man.” - Alexander Pope

32. “All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.” - Michael Crichton

33. “Write to your heart’s content and by all means, have fun with your creation. It’s your moment to do absolutely anything within those pages.” - Jennifer Murgia

34. “Gran, for the gods' love, it's talk like yours that starts riots!" I said keeping my voice down. "Will you just put a stopper in it?"She looked at me and sighed. "Girl, do you ever take a breath and wonder if folk don't put out bait for you? To see if you'll bite? You'll never get a man if you don't relax."My dear old Gran. It's a wonder her children aren't every one of them as mad as priests, if she mangles their wits as she mangles mine."Granny, "I told her, "this is dead serious. I can't relax, no more than any Dog. I'm not shopping for a man. That's the last thing I need.” - Tamora Pierce

35. “No. The moral of the story in so far as it has one is that cannibals can study logic, and that if you are going to leave the path, you better have your wits about you and know better than to trust the first scary old lady who talks to you in public.” - Nick Harkaway

36. “Who would condescend to strike down the mere things that he does notfear? Who would debase himself to be merely brave, like any commonprizefighter? Who would stoop to be fearless--like a tree? Fight thething that you fear. You remember the old tale of the English clergymanwho gave the last rites to the brigand of Sicily, and how on hisdeath-bed the great robber said, 'I can give you no money, but I cangive you advice for a lifetime: your thumb on the blade, and strikeupwards.' So I say to you, strike upwards, if you strike at the stars.” - G.K. Chesterton

37. “Who are they to give stars or dots? They're Wemmicks just like you."Eli to Punchinello (p. 25)” - Max Lucado

38. “Wisdom most of the time takes form of advice. ” - Veda Catherine Storey

39. “Most bullies are the product of a stressful and often abusive home life. Next time a bully threatens or attacks you, just yell, 'Don't abuse me like your parents abuse you!' Then call children's services and tell them you saw this bully crying in the bathroom and you're worried about him. Bam! He just got moved to a foster home.” - Eugene Mirman

40. “Hitch: making rules about drinking can be the sign of an alcoholic,' as Martin Amis once teasingly said to me. (Adorno would have savored that, as well.) Of course, watching the clock for the start-time is probably a bad sign, but here are some simple pieces of advice for the young. Don't drink on an empty stomach: the main point of the refreshment is the enhancement of food. Don't drink if you have the blues: it's a junk cure. Drink when you are in a good mood. Cheap booze is a false economy. It's not true that you shouldn't drink alone: these can be the happiest glasses you ever drain. Hangovers are another bad sign, and you should not expect to be believed if you take refuge in saying you can't properly remember last night. (If you really don't remember, that's an even worse sign.) Avoid all narcotics: these make you more boring rather than less and are not designed—as are the grape and the grain—to enliven company. Be careful about up-grading too far to single malt Scotch: when you are voyaging in rough countries it won't be easily available. Never even think about driving a car if you have taken a drop. It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't ever be responsible for it.” - Christopher Hitchens

41. “Never offer advice just to appear concerned.” - Jack Gardner

42. “The urge to move is natural and understandable. As will be the case throughout your life, no matter how long or brief, the choice is, in the end, yours. Simply bear in mind that most every choice will have consequences, and in this instance those consequences would likely be quite grave.” - Ron Currie Jr.

43. “I have never yet figured out what to do about good advice that you get, and that you know right away would help you, but that you cannot follow.” - Holly Lisle

44. “Talk is free but the wise man chooses when to spend his words.” - Neil Gaiman

45. “Never make the first move." - Loor (The Rivers of Zadaa)” - D.J. MacHale

46. “Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.” - William Shakespeare

47. “The hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.” - Eddie Van Halen

48. “Don't give your money to the church. They should be giving their money to you.” - George Carlin

49. “Pack a pillow and blanket and see as much of the world as you can.You will not regret it.” - Jhumpa Lahiri

50. “One bullet can really fuck up your day.” - Mark Haskell Smith

51. “Children who paddle where the ocean bed shelves steeplyMust take great care they do not, Paddle too deeply.'Thus spake the awful aging coupleWhose heart the years had turned to rubble.But the little children, to save any bother,Let it in at one ear and out at the other.” - Stevie Smith

52. “Hugs can do great amounts of good - especially for children." -Diana” - Kate Petrella

53. “Sometimes the best advice comes from those whom you least expect…therefore take no one for granted” - Jeremy Aldana

54. “Failure is when you give up. A real winner is someone that doesn't give up, even when it feels like they are losing.” - Joshua Hartzell

55. “Live your epitaph” - Zoe Weil

56. “You can figure out what the villain fears by his choice of weapons.” - Connie Brockway

57. “Here is the solution to the American drug problem suggested a couple years back by the wife of our President: "Just say no.” - Kurt Vonnegut

58. “Better to have you curse me for giving you too much freedom, than have you blame me for bad decisions that may or may not have come as a result of my advice.” - Tori Carrington

59. “Be happy without picking flaws.” - Victor Hugo

60. “Science is better than sympathy, if only it is science.” - E.M. Forster

61. “It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice. But the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.” - Wendelin Van Draanen

62. “It's a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.” - Randy Pausch

63. “The safe and cultural method of eating crackers in bed is to wear a diver's suit instead of pajamas.” - Basil Wolverton

64. “Horrible the fate of the advice-giver in our culture: to repeat oneself in a thousand contexts until death, or irrelevance.            *I abjure advice-giver.” - Frank Bidart

65. “I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say ‘I’m bored.” - Louis C.K.

66. “Here are the two states in which you may exist: person who writes, or person who does not. If you write: you are a writer. If you do not write: you are not. Aspiring is a meaningless null state that romanticizes Not Writing. It’s as ludicrous as saying, “I aspire to pick up that piece of paper that fell on the floor.” Either pick it up or don’t. I don’t want to hear about how your diaper’s full. Take it off or stop talking about it.” - Chuck Wendig

67. “Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel," the old man had said, "the same counsel I once gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne. A man grown with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the Wall. It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born." The old man felt Jon's face. "You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is crueler one, I fear. You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.” - George R.R. Martin

68. “Validating User-Submitted Settings” - VanDyk

69. “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.” - Steve Jobs

70. “Strangely enough, I don't seem to tolerate food in great quantities or when it is too rich anymore.”“That's perfectly all right. Most people dig their graves with their own teeth as it is.” - Andrew Ashling

71. “When faced with 2 choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment when the coin is in the air YOU SUDDENLY KNOW WHAT YOUR HOPING FOR. :)” - wisdom quotes

72. “As Daffy once said, the best place to hide a glum countenance is onstage at the opera.” - Alan Bradley

73. “I admonish Your Majesty, as the woman who gave you life and loves you like no other, to behave always in a manner that safeguards your immortal soul. Seek God's glory in the Holy Land rather than your own, that I may see you in heaven if never again in France.” - Sophie Perinot

74. “Knowledge in the head and virtue in the heart, time devoted to study or business, instead of show and pleasure, are the way to be useful and consequently happy.” - John Adams

75. “Don't let a thief into your house three times. The first time was enough. The second time was a chance. The third time means you're stupid.” - C. JoyBell C.

76. “Dear Aspiring Writer, you are not ready. Stop. Put that finished story away and start another one. In a month, go back and look at the first story. RE-EDIT it. Then send it to a person you respect in the field who will be hard on you. Pray for many many many red marks. Fix them. Then put it away for two weeks. Work on something else. Finally, edit one last time. Now you are ready to sub your first work.Criticism is hard to take at first. Trust me, I've been there. But learn to think of crit marks as a knife. Each one is designed to cut away the bad and leave a scar. Scars prove you've lived, learned and walked away a winner. Any writer who tells you they don't need edits is lying. I don't care if they have 100 books out. Edits make you grow and if you aren't growing as a writer, you are dead.” - Inez Kelley

77. “Common sense will nearly always stand you in better stead than a slavish adherence to the conventions.” - M.M. Kaye

78. “I have many dead people who talk to me, whisper advice into my ears in the finest of moments. I take their advice in the moments where life shouldn't allow you to make your own business. This is one of those moments. The dead whisperer, Eleanor Roosevelt. The advice, "Do one thing every day that scares you." Here goes!” - Cyndi Goodgame

79. “Don't let anyone take your power by influencing what you do.... sure ask for advice when you are still deciding, but once you are sure what you want to go for, don't let anyone deflect you. It is YOUR choice to make and to follow through.” - jay woodman

80. “If you have to hit--hit low.” - Tamora Pierce

81. “If you are stealing people's thunder just by being around and standing there; you really can't expect people to like you. People want their own thunder to be heard loud and wide, not yours! Swans should never despair over ducks not liking them.” - C. JoyBell C.

82. “It's always better to attack than to defend," Coram had told her when they talked about fencing late at night. "Always. Ye don't win with defense--ye only hold the other feller off, or wear him down. Attack and have done with it!” - Tamora Pierce

83. “She's an old soldier's woman, and she has antennae for things that often escape the officer in the field.” - Robert Ludlum

84. “A person that does not value your time will not value your advice.” - Orrin Woodward

85. “If you don't mind a word of advice, one never asks a lady to set her own price. If you have to ask, the answer will always be more than you can afford.” - Eloisa James

86. “At their core, Tiger Eyes, Forever..., and Sally J. Freeman are all books about teenage issues, but to an adult reader, the parents' story lines seem to almost overshadow their daughters. I'm bringing an entirely new set of experiences to these novels now, and my reward is a fresh set of story lines that i missed the first time around. I'm sure that in twenty or thirty years I'll read these books again and completely identify with all the grandparent characteristics. That's the wonderful thing about Judy Blume - you can revisit her stories at any stage in life and find a character who strikes a deep chord of recognition. I've been there, I'm in the middle of this, someday that'll be me. The same characters, yet somehow completely different. (Beth Kendrick)” - Jennifer O'Connell

87. “Be focused in what you do and what you say. There is much noise in the world to detrack you.” - Moazzam Shaikh

88. “...[W]hen I told my dad why I was calling, he just said, 'Honey, you're so beautiful it doesn't matter what you wear.' I wondered how many dads in America were, at that very moment, giving their daughters the same useless advice mine was giving me.” - Melissa Kantor

89. “If you're bored, you're boring.” - Barbara "Cutie" Cooper

90. “Die Jahre, die man auf dem Buckel hatte, waren zu nichts mehr nutze: Man brauchte sie ungelebt, einen ganzen Vorrat davon. Denn je älter man wurde, desto mehr Dinge gingen zu Bruch.” - Ali Shaw

91. “Rule of life. If you bother to ask someone’s advice, then bother to listen to it.” - Sophie Kinsella

92. “He who aims too high will get a sore neck” - Michelle Cohen Corasanti

93. “Stop and reflect on what your diet is doing for you.” - Alice McCall

94. “Advice from a Romance Writer: Guys, make your woman feel pretty even on an 'off' day. Trust me, good things will come of it.” - Michelle M. Pillow

95. “Nixon to Clinton: "When seeking advice from people who are more experienced than you, tell them what you plan to do first, and then ask for their reaction. Don't ask for their advice, and then ignore it. That way you save on bruised feelings.” - Nancy Gibbs

96. “Don't settle for being an option; become a priority.” - Matt Mitchell

97. “My Dear Son,I am so very proud of you. Now, as you embark on a new journey, I'd like to share this one piece of advice. Always, always remember that - adversity is not a detour. It is part of the path.You will encounter obstacles. You will make mistakes. Be grateful for both. Your obstacles and mistakes will be your greatest teachers. And the only way to not make mistakes in this life is to do nothing, which is the biggest mistake of all. Your challenges, if you let them, will become your greatest allies. Mountains can crush or raise you, depending on which side of the mountain you choose to stand on. All history bears out that the great, those who have changed the world, have all suffered great challenges. And, more times than not it's precisely those challenges that, in God's time, lead to triumph.Abhor victimhood. Denounce entitlement. Neither are gifts, rather cages to damn the soul. Everyone who has walked this earth is a victim of injustice. Everyone.Most of all, do not be too quick to denounce your sufferings. The difficult road you are called to walk may, in fact be your only path to success.” - Richard Paul Evans

98. “The best revenge is living well, my dad told me once.” - Barry Lyga

99. “Entrust your dreams and goals to people who will cheer you on and inspire you, who will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear so you can move forward and fast track.” - Rachael Bermingham

100. “No kid in the world, no woman in the world should ever raise a hand against a no-good daddy. That's already been taken care of: A Man Who Destroys His Own Home Shall Inherit the Wind.” - Dick Gregory

101. “Lately, because computer technology has made self-publishing an easier and less expensive venture, I'm getting a lot of review copies of amateur books by writers who would be better advised to hone their craft before committing it to print. The best thing you can do as a beginning writer is to write, write, write - and read, read, read. Concentrating on publication prematurely is a mistake. You don't pick up a violin and expect to play Carnegie Hall within the year - yet somehow people forget that writing also requires technical skills that need to be learned, practiced, honed. If I had a dollar for every person I've met who thought, with no prior experience, they could sit down and write a novel and instantly win awards and make their living as a writer, I'd be a rich woman today. It's unrealistic, and it's also mildly insulting to professional writers who have worked hard to perfect their craft. Of course, then you hear stories about people like J.K. Rowling, who did sit down with no prior experience and write a worldwide best-seller...but such people are as rare as hen's teeth. Every day I work with talented, accomplished writers who have many novels in print and awards to their name and who are ‘still’ struggling to make a living. The thing I often find myself wanting to say to new writers is: Write because you love writing, learn your craft, be patient, and be realistic. Anais Nin said about writing, "It should be a necessity, as the sea needs to heave, and I call it breathing."” - Terri Windling

102. “Advice is priceless: when it becomes interference it is preposterous.” - Idries Shah

103. “BE CAREFUL, OR BE ROADKILL!” - Bill Watterson

104. “But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. The choice is yours: to go or wait.''And it is also said,' answered Frodo: 'Go not to the Elves for counsel for they will answer both no and yes.''Is it indeed?' laughed Gildor. 'Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

105. “Drinking is something people do; it's not what you are. But when it becomes what you are, you need to think about becoming something else.” - Tim Cowlishaw

106. “Merrill Krause - You mentioned God's will for me. How will I know what that is, Father?Bogart Krause - I've always believed it to start with prayer. The Good Book says that if a man wants wisdom, he just has to ask. I would imagine it works the same way for womenfolk. If you want to know what God's plan is -- then I would ask Him. Couldn't hurt to search the Scriptures, too. And listen to what He is telling you inside. Even when you don't think you're hearing anything, keep listening.” - Tracie Peterson

107. “The ordeals of others . . .prepare us, andlater become the compass . . .in our time of ordeal.” - John-Talmage Mathis

108. “Preparation:allows you to prevent . . .the intensity of the ordeal.” - John-Talmage Mathis