I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another mat... — Winston Churchill

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

Author: Winston Churchill

Insight: There's something bracing about Churchill's joke here—he's not pretending to be humble or unaware of his own intensity. He's acknowledging that he's a lot to handle, and rather than apologize for it, he's made it funny. Most of us spend energy trying to shrink ourselves, soften our edges, become "easier" for others. Churchill just... didn't. But there's real wisdom buried in the humor. Being fully yourself—with all your opinions, your force of personality, your refusal to disappear—is disruptive. It makes other people uncomfortable sometimes. The usual move is to treat that discomfort as proof we're doing something wrong. Churchill suggests another possibility: maybe we're just big enough to be difficult. Maybe that's not a flaw to fix but something to own. The underlying idea matters for everyday life. You don't have to be likeable all the time. You don't have to make everyone comfortable with who you are. The people worth keeping around will handle the ordeal of meeting you. The rest were probably going to find something to complain about anyway.

Source: Richard M. Langworth, Churchill by Himself: In His Own Words, p. 557