I’ll tell you one thing: Don’t ever give anybody your best advice, because they’re not going to follow it.

Nicholson’s line is a wry, world-weary observation about the limits of counsel. “Best advice” implies hard-won, experience-based guidance, yet the punchline—people won’t follow it—suggests that advice rarely overrides desire, habit, pride, or the need to learn firsthand. The quote also hints at a performer’s skepticism about moralizing: giving advice can be more about the speaker’s self-image than the listener’s change. Read charitably, it’s not anti-wisdom but pro-agency: people tend to choose their own path, and the most effective “advice” may be empathy, questions, or support rather than directives.