Young people soon give, and forget insults, but old age is slow in both.

— Addison, Joseph

By indignities men come to dignities.

— Bacon, Francis

I am not going to spend any time whatsoever in attacking the Foreign Secretary. If we complain about the tune, there is no reason to attack the monkey when the organ grinder is present.

— Bevan, Aneurin

Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.

— Brown, Sam

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

— Descartes, Rene

Calumny is only the noise of madmen.

— Diogenes of Sinope

It is not he who gives abuse that affronts, but the view that we take of it as insulting; so that when one provokes you it is your own opinion which is provoking.

— Epictetus

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.

— Franklin, Benjamin

No one can be as calculatedly rude as the British, which amazes Americans, who do not understand studied insult and can only offer abuse as a substitute.

— Gallico, Paul

You will find that silence or very gentle words are the most exquisite revenge for insult.

— Hall, Judge

The best way to procure insults is to submit to them.

— Hazlitt, William

Never insult an alligator until you've crossed the river.

— Hull, Cordell

Oppression is more easily endured than insult.

— Junius

The slight that can be conveyed in a glance, in a gracious smile, in a wave of the hand, is often the knee plus ultra of art. What insult is so keen or so keenly felt, as the polite insult which it is impossible to resent?

— Kavanagh, Julia

The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved.

— Lynes, Russell

If you can't ignore an insult, top it; if you can't top it, laugh it off; and if you can't laugh it off, it's probably deserved.

— Lynes, Russell

A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults.

— Nizer, Louis

Even rabbits insult an dead lion.

— Proverb

Little enemies and little wounds must not be despised.

— Proverb

He who puts up with insult invites injury.

— Proverb, Jewish

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

— Rousseau, Jean Jacques

People think that they just want movies like Pretty Woman, when really they -- at least the ones that I know personally -- have been waiting for something that doesn't completely insult them.

— Ryder, Winona

It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.

— Seneca

Daily life is governed by an economic system in which the production and consumption of insults tends to balance out.

— Vaneigem, Raoul