As I was saying when I was interrupted, it is a powerful hard thing to please all of the people all of the time.

-Connor, Sir William Neil pseudonym Cassandra
  On resuming his Cassandra column in the Daily Mirror, Sep, after the end of  World War II.

Art cannot be made with an intent to please.

-Degas, (Hilaire Germain) Edgar
Quoted in R H Ives Gammell The Shop-Talk of Edgar Degas (1961).

I think the dying prayat the last not please but thank you as a guest thanks his host at the door.

-Dillard, Annie
  Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, ch.15.

Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone,'twas natural to please.

-Dryden,John
Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.27^8.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. Theyare to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

-Frederick II, the Great
Attributed.

   To celebrate her eyes, her airö Coarse panegyrics would but tease her. Melissa is her nom de guerre. Alas, who would not wish to please her!

-Gray,Thomas
  A Long Story, l.33^6.

The stage but echoes back the public voice. The drama's laws the drama's patrons give, For we, who live to please, must please to live.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Prologue, written for David Garrick on the occasion of the opening of his management of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave; and success 442 and miscarriage are empty sounds.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  A Dictionary of the English Language, preface.

Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Plays of  William Shakespeare, preface.

L'homme qui a un peu use¤   ses e¤  motions est plus presse¤ de plaire que d'aimer. The person who has used his emotions even a little is more anxious to please than to love.

-Samuelson, Sir Sydney
  Indiana, pt.1, ch.5.

   Man kann den Menschen nicht verwehren, Zu denken, was sie wollen. One cannot prevent people from thinking what they please.

-Schiller, Friedrich
  Maria Stuart, act1, sc.8.

The Admiral said,'You could never callö I assure you it would not do at all! She gets down from the table without saying 'please', Forgets her prayers and to cross herT's, In short, her scandalous reputation Has shocked the whole of the Hellish nation'.

-Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa
  Fa c° ade,'En Famille'.