What Eleanor Roosevelt Said

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway.
You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.  --Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962)

They will tell you that you are wearing the wrong shade of purple. When you stop wearing purple altogether, they will say that the problem is that you need to lighten up. When you laugh, they will say that what you are laughing about isn't funny. The former First Lady was right--you just can't win. But who are they, anyway?

"They" are the ones who prefer to find something wrong with you rather than to look too closely at themselves. They are the ones whose misery loves company. It won't matter what you say or do, what color you dye your hair, or whether or not, as Pope, you choose to wear the fancy red shoes. Their picture of you will always be as of a glass half empty. They can't stand to see your cup overflowing. They want you silent and dressed like wallpaper.

The only regret you will have is listening to "they". They are the loveless, clanging cymbals. Do not allow them to gong you off the show of your own life. It's the only one you've got.

The Gong Show