“We may bestow advice, but we cannot inspire the conduct.”
Variant translation: We give advice but do not inspire behavior.
Maxim 378.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
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François de La Rochefoucauld156
French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680Related quotes
“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
No. 135 (2 July 1751)
Source: The Rambler (1750–1752)
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Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
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Vol. I; CXC
Lacon (1820)
Fran Lebowitz (1950) author and public speaker from the United States
Index Magazine interview http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/fran_lebowitz.shtml with David Savage (1997).
“When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.”
Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer
Demander un conseil, c'est presque toujours chercher un complice. — Adélaïde-Édouard le Lièvre, marquis de La Grange et de Fourilles (1796–1876), Pensées (1872) http://books.google.com/books?id=_YcDAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA479&dq=%22Demander+un+conseil,+c'est+presque+toujours+chercher+un+complice%22&hl=en <br class="br">Misattributed
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Source: 1970's, The Untroubled Mind', 1972, p. 62
Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Windham, p. 104
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Company (1982)