“This is your life, not someone else's. It is your own feeling of what is important, not what people will say. Sooner or later, you are bound to discover that you cannot please all of the people around you all of the time. Some of t hem will attribute to you motives you never dreamed of. Some of them will misinterpret your words and actions, making them completely alien to you. So you had better learn fairly early that you must not expect to have everyone understand what you say and what you do.”

American political figure, diplomat, and activist

Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was best known as the longest-serving first lady of the United States, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four presidential terms from 1933 to 1945, and for the public role she shaped beyond the White House. After becoming widowed in 1945, she represented the United States at the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. She played a leading part in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in building support for it around the world. Her work was widely recognized in 1948, when the assembly gave her a standing ovation after adopting the declaration.