Modesty never rages, never murmurs, never pouts when it is ill-treated.

Not being easily insulted usually comes from not having much on display to defend. Someone with no inflated picture to protect can absorb a slight or a piece of rudeness without needing to square it, because nothing important has been touched. The sulking and the flaring come from the picture, not from the injury.

This is about small slights rather than real mistreatment, and there is no virtue in quietly absorbing that. For the ordinary ones, try letting the next one pass without a response, and see how little it costs. Most of what stings for an afternoon was aimed at a version of you that you do not need.