Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.

[Les vieillards aiment à donner de bons préceptes, pour se consoler de n’être plus en état de donner de mauvais exemples.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶93 (1665-1678) [tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
    (Source)

Appeared in the 1st (1665) edition.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Old Folks love mightily to give good Advice, because this makes them some sort of Amends, for being incapable now of setting Ill Examples.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶94]

Old-age gives good advice, when it is no longer able to give bad example.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶322; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶90]

Old men; are fond of giving good advice, to console themselves for being no longer in a position to give bad examples.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶97]

Old people like to give good advice, since they can no longer set bad examples.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶93]

Old people are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for being no longer able to give bad examples.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶93]

Old people love to give good advice: it compensates them for their inability nowadays to set a bad example.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶93]

Old men love to give good advice to console themselves for not being able to set bad examples.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶93]

Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶93]

Old men love to give good precepts in order to console themselves for no longer being able to set bad examples.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶93]