^^#18: I heard that same exact sentence.
My dad always said, “Best to keep your mouth closed and ears open”.
My dad was nouveau riche whose goal in life was not to let anyone suspect he was nouveau riche. So he absorbed rules of behavior from books like Emily Post and insisted that I learn a bunch of that stuff too. By the time they sent me away to boarding school (!) I’d realized that being “riche” hadn’t done a damned thing to make his life happy, so I made it my goal in life to unlearn most of the things he’d taught me. No regrets.
My parents did also say some things that I consider ridiculous. Mainly this one, from my mom: “You don’t stay married 50 years by talking to each other.”
Mother: be curious and willing to go against the common grain. When I was young, one of the annoying things she used to repeat was, “If you never tried anything new, you’d still be eating pablum.”
Grandmother (believe it or not, cuz she was a tough lady): have a positive attitude. She was a fan of “Think and Grow Rich.”
Brother: read Dale Carnegie. (I did find it interesting.)
One more from my mother, that was great: know that what you put in writing and send off can’t be unwritten.
Umm, “Children should be seen and not heard.” ???
Dad- pick one subject and get really good at it. (I did). My mother had plenty of bad advice- I realized it and I never followed any of it - I am thankful for that.
Just remembered one really important one from my mom-Marriage isn’t 50/50, it’s 100/100. In other words, making the marriage work takes your full effort.
My grandmother, who was years ahead of her time in many ways, told us all to take risks and have fun. She did, and lived a long, happy life.
My mom always said “don’t waste words on people who deserve your silence.”
And “your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.”
Not so much the words - which included “don’t go to bed angry” and “become a doctor or a lawyer so you have a career to fall back on if he can’t support you” - 
- but more by their actions. Loyalty, honesty, family, hard work, dream big and put in the effort to make it happen.
A man who gives his children the habit of industry provides for them better than giving them a sack of money.
Don’t drive too slow.
Brown and gray don’t match.
Include everyone and be nice. If you don’t want to be that girl’s friend, find her someone else to play with but be nice until you do.
My mom read something somewhere that our moods operate on a Bell Curve, so that if I was feeling down, I was probably at the bottom of my bell curve, and that things were bound to turn up. Oddly enough, I found this to be true.
Look both ways before crossing the street.
Don’t date anybody you wouldn’t want your future daughter to date.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
You WILL go to college. (Though they did not.)
If anyone we know needs a ride to the game, concert, social event, etc., offer them one. We are going anyway and they should get to go to all of those events also.
People aren’t looking at you all of the time (get over yourself).
Any woman can get a guy. All she has to do is keep her standards low.
My grandmother used to tell us “pretty is as pretty does,” and don’t be “ugly.” She had several other phrases/snippets of advice, but I’m drawing a blank.
My dad was a great role model and a constant source of good advice and wisdom. He hung a plaque in my room when I was young which said: " I owe all of my success to always being a quarter of an hour beforehand" and his favorite quote was “Honesty is the best policy”. I try to live up to both of those.
Mom- don’t settle (for something less than what you wanted). This is something I have passed onto both kids but came in handy with DD when she was younger and wanted to spend her money on something.
Grandma- if you’re not sure, don’t do it. If you go ahead and do it anyway, then fully commit.
Mom and Dad- it’s okay to be different. You can find normal people everywhere, it’s the unique ones that stand out.
Me to my kids- fake it until you make it. Comes in handy when they are unsure about something (job, school. etc.)
True friends will be there when it counts.