“I try to do what's right for me,
But no-one sees the way I see,
And then I try to please them so,
But how far can this pleasing go?”

— Michael Jackson

Destiny (1977)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I try to do what's right for me, But no-one sees the way I see, And then I try to please them so, But how far can th…" by Michael Jackson?

Michael Jackson 110

American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958–2009

Related quotes

“I do my best to please everybody, far more than they'd ever guess. I try to laugh it all off, because I don't want to let them see my trouble.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“We may try to see things as objectively as we please. None the less, we can never see them with any eyes except our own.”

Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870–1938) United States federal judge

Pages 12-13
Other writings, The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921)
Context: There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether you choose to call it philosophy or not, which gives coherence and direction to thought and action. Judges cannot escape that current any more than other mortals. All their lives, forces which they do not recognize and cannot name, have been tugging at them — inherited instincts, traditional beliefs, acquired convictions; and the resultant is an outlook on life, a conception of social needs. … In this mental background every problem finds it setting. We may try to see things as objectively as we please. None the less, we can never see them with any eyes except our own.

“Telling me I can do anything I want is like pulling the plug out of the bath and then telling the water it can go anywhere it wants. Try it, and see what happens.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

Source: A Long Way Down

“People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”

Alice Walker book The Color Purple

Source: The Color Purple

“When I see myself, I wonder: what do others try to see in themselves?”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Viéndome, me pregunto: ¿qué pretenden verse los demás?
Voces (1943)

“The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

“If you try to please everyone you’ll please no one.”

Ricky Gervais (1961) English comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter

“Me personally and professionally, I haven't been that outspoken about race and class, partly because it's in my work, but in part because I don't want to get hate mail. I'm sick of trying to talk to people. I don't think you can change people. I think people have to be forced to do the right thing, so I'm not interested in trying to change people's opinion. I can illuminate, and you can see if you like. And if you can't see it, then just go buy the next book. But I'm sorry, I'm no longer interested in trying to be nice about what is right, because that doesn't work.”

James McBride (writer) (1957) American journalist

On letting his work speak regarding race and class in “James McBride Says Fiction Writing Allows Him More Freedom” https://www.npr.org/2017/10/01/554933082/james-mcbride-says-fiction-writing-allows-him-more-freedom in NPR (2017 Oct 1)

“By good rights I ought not to have so much
Put on me, but there seems no other way.
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.
He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through —
Leastways for me — and then they’ll be convinced.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

A Servant To Servants (1914)
1910s

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”