Good Advice: More Than 2,000 Quotations to help You Live Your Life [Hardcover]

William Safire (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 1993

More than 2,000 Quotations to Help You Live Your Life.
Here's life's big instruction book—a treasury of personal quotations that actually tell you what to do. Proverbs, wise sayings and observations on everything from business and money, to dining, passion, risk, and retirement, with witty and whimsical line drawings throughout. Compiled by today's most widely read writer on language from the works of the greats of all ages, Confucius to Mel Brooks.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

More than 2,000 Quotations to Help You Live Your Life.
Here's life's big instruction book?a treasury of personal quotations that actually tell you what to do. Proverbs, wise sayings and observations on everything from business and money, to dining, passion, risk, and retirement, with witty and whimsical line drawings throughout. Compiled by today's most widely read writer on language from the works of the greats of all ages, Confucius to Mel Brooks.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 415 pages
• Publisher: Gramercy (January 18, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517084732
• ISBN-13: 978-0517084731
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Safire began his writing career as a reporter, became a speechwriter in the Nixon White House, and re-crossed the street to write an Op-Ed column in the New York Times for the next three decades. He also wrote the weekly "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine. He was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary and the Medal of Freedom.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtfulness multiplies, December 9, 1998

By 

Melanie Stegman ([e-mail]) (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Good Advice: More Than 2,000 Quotations to help You Live Your Life (Hardcover)

The two Mr. Safires express their joy in finding such concise expresions of good advice. Like poetry, good advice does sum up a whole lot of feelings and thoughts in one or two punchy phrases. Language is really neat that way, and I like the book for that, too. But what I love about this book, and why I bought it for myself and my littlest brother, is that each sentence reminds the reader that each of us is mulling over the same worries, and same concerns and the same desires... for success, for friendship, for self improvement. So the good advice is all the more useful, because it comes with a connection to other people who were thinking just like you at some point.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am going to buy a this book for everyone in my family., October 19, 2007

By 

NAF Atlanta (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Advice: More Than 2,000 Quotations to help You Live Your Life (Hardcover)

I bought this book at a book sale for $2.00 and was surprised at how much I liked it. I recently had a difficult decision to make, picked up this book, and it actually helped! I am going to buy one for my children and grandchildren. It is not only "good advise" but a lot of fun to read. I sit down to read just a few sentences and stay a lot longer than I intended. Great for a coffee table, guest room, or bathroom!!

5.0 out of 5 stars "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook" William James, February 17, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Good Advice: More Than 2,000 Quotations to help You Live Your Life (Hardcover)

This work gives life- advice by subject. Each subject such as "Resignation" "Resolution" "Rest- Relaxation" "Restraint" has around five to ten quotations devoted to it. The quotations are from a wide variety of sources, and provide the kind of 'dipping in ' pleasure that books of this sort usually do.

The idea is that " the more than 2,000 quotations' are to help you live your life.

Whether or not they will do that is of course a real question. My suspicion is most books of this kind have their chief value in the small pleasure we get from them while reading them.

But who knows what 'Eureka' any particular reader will find on any page.

In any case there is much here to delight in( and not a little to overlook and ignore.")

"If you wish yur merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people." Jewish proverb

"Be not ashamed of mistakes and make them crimes." Confucian proverb

"Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart." Longfellow

"Get pleasure out of life... as much as you can. Nobody ever died from pleasure." Sol Hurok

"I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains... My advice is: Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the sunshine, go out and try to recapture happiness in yourself and in God. Think of all the beauty that's still left in and around you and be happy! Anne Frank