“I have known many people to ask for advice but very few who wanted it and none who followed it.”

Variant: As a general rule... people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.
Source: The Three Musketeers

Original: (it) Fate sempre attenzione a chiedere aiuto. Il vero aiuto si ottiene da poche, pochissime persone: quelle che ci mettono il cuore.
Source: prevale.net

According to The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867) by F. B. Carpenter, Lincoln quoted this as having been said to him by a fellow-passenger in a stagecoach. See also "Washington during the War", Macmillan's Magazine 6:24 http://books.google.com/books?id=rB4AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=folks (May 1862)
Posthumous attributions
Variant: It's my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues.

Metro Weekly interview (2006)
Context: Listen, I have no judgment about anything. Some people will bring certain celebrities up to me who are presumably — or known to be — gay and ask "Why don't they come out?" But we don't know why they don't, and it's none of our business, really. In '75 I was making the Modern Scream album, and Jane and I were in the studio. My publicist called me and said "Time will give you the cover if you'll come out." I was more offended than anything that they thought we'd make a deal. But that was '75 — it would have been a hard thing to do at that time.

Variant: She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Source: Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (1999), Ch. 8: 'Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet', p. 127

Maxim 149
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

June 16
Addresses to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)
Context: Mr. Chairman — A worthy member has asked, who are the militia, if they be not the people, of this country, and if we are not to be protected from the fate of the Germans, Prussians, &c. by our representation? I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor; but may be confined to the lower and middle classes of the people, granting exclusion to the higher classes of the people. If we should ever see that day, the most ignominious punishments and heavy fines may be expected. Under the present government all ranks of people are subject to militia duty.