Books in Brief: Good Advice

Good Advice, by Leonard Safir and William Safire (Times Books, 400 pp., $16.95). Advice is cheap, they say. They also say good advice is costly. In this case, it will cost you nearly $20, which seems a tad dear for a collection of two thousand quotations. Nevertheless, there is a lot of good advice here, if you are the sort who consults books for it. The authors (they are brothers, despite the different spellings: William added the final “e” because that is how the name is pronounced) have heeded Horace’s advice of 8 B.c.: “Whatever your advice, make it brief.” In his introduction, Safire notes that the essence of advice is the verb; as illustration, he provides his own favorite piece of advice: Napoleon’s “If you start to take Vienna—take Vienna.” This is all very good and fine, I suppose, but surely the brothers were actually following the more practical advice of Oscar Wilde—“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” And surely they realize, as did Byron, that “good but rarely came from good advice.” Still, the authors have collected quotes from such diverse characters as Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Shakespeare, and Steve McQueen. And who cannot think of situations where these words will come in handy? “When angry, count four; when very angry, swear,” according to Mark Twain. An English proverb: “Think of ease, but work on.” Or this from Theodore Roosevelt: “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” Jefferson Davis counseled, “Never be haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty.” And H. L. Mencken advised, “Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” In the end, it is perhaps best to heed Horace Smith, the English essayist and stockbroker, who in 1826 wrote, “Good advice is one of those injuries which a good man ought, if possible, to forgive.” Mr. Safire and Mr. Safir are forgiven.

JM

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Joe Mysak

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Good Advice, by Leonard Safir and William Safire (Times Books, 400 pp., $16.95). Advice is cheap, they say. They also say good advice is costly. In this case, it will cost you nearly $20, which seems a tad dear for a collection of two thousand quotations. Nevertheless, there is a lot of good advice here, if you are the sort who consults books for it. The authors (they are brothers, despite the different spellings: William added the final “e” because that is how the name is pronounced) have heeded Horace’s advice of 8 B.c.: “Whatever your advice, make it brief.” In his introduction, Safire notes that the essence of advice is the verb; as illustration, he provides his own favorite piece of advice: Napoleon’s “If you start to take Vienna—take Vienna.” This is all very good and fine, I suppose, but surely the brothers were actually following the more practical advice of Oscar Wilde—“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” And surely they realize, as did Byron, that “good but rarely came from good advice.” Still, the authors have collected quotes from such diverse characters as Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Shakespeare, and Steve McQueen. And who cannot think of situations where these words will come in handy? “When angry, count four; when very angry, swear,” according to Mark Twain. An English proverb: “Think of ease, but work on.” Or this from Theodore Roosevelt: “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” Jefferson Davis counseled, “Never be haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty.” And H. L. Mencken advised, “Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” In the end, it is perhaps best to heed Horace Smith, the English essayist and stockbroker, who in 1826 wrote, “Good advice is one of those injuries which a good man ought, if possible, to forgive.” Mr. Safire and Mr. Safir are forgiven.