"Anything worth doing is worth overdoing"
About this Quote
Mick Jagger turns a respectable self-help maxim into a backstage dare. “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing” isn’t a philosophical treatise so much as a swaggering permission slip: if you’re going to commit, commit loud, messy, and past the point where polite society gets nervous. Coming from the frontman of the Rolling Stones - a band that made excess into an aesthetic - the line reads less like advice and more like brand truth.
The intent is mischievous inversion. The original proverb praises diligence and restraint: do it well, do it properly. Jagger flips it into a celebration of amplification, the way rock performance itself works. A chorus isn’t repeated because the songwriter ran out of ideas; it’s repeated because repetition makes it ritual. Stadium shows, screaming fans, volume turned up until it’s physical - overdoing is the point.
The subtext is a little darker than the grin suggests. Overdoing can mean obsession, risk, self-destruction, the addictive logic of fame and appetite. Jagger’s career sits right on that fault line: the myth of reckless rock god meets the reality of longevity, discipline, and self-management. That tension is why the quote has legs. It pretends to be pure hedonism, but it also captures how culture rewards intensity: the artist who goes “too far” is often the one who moves the needle.
It’s a one-liner that romanticizes excess while quietly acknowledging a modern truth: moderation rarely makes history.
The intent is mischievous inversion. The original proverb praises diligence and restraint: do it well, do it properly. Jagger flips it into a celebration of amplification, the way rock performance itself works. A chorus isn’t repeated because the songwriter ran out of ideas; it’s repeated because repetition makes it ritual. Stadium shows, screaming fans, volume turned up until it’s physical - overdoing is the point.
The subtext is a little darker than the grin suggests. Overdoing can mean obsession, risk, self-destruction, the addictive logic of fame and appetite. Jagger’s career sits right on that fault line: the myth of reckless rock god meets the reality of longevity, discipline, and self-management. That tension is why the quote has legs. It pretends to be pure hedonism, but it also captures how culture rewards intensity: the artist who goes “too far” is often the one who moves the needle.
It’s a one-liner that romanticizes excess while quietly acknowledging a modern truth: moderation rarely makes history.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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