12. Mistakes. But suppose an insult is unjust. In that case the Stoic regards whoever delivered it not as a bad person but as mistaken, and as appropriately viewed in the way we look at anyone who blunders – mostly as a pitiful character. You need not be a sage to take insults lightly, but merely someone of sense – one who might say: “Do I deserve these things that happen to me? If I deserve them, there is no insult; it is justice. If I don’t deserve them, let the one who does the injustice blush.” Seneca, On the Constancy of the Wise Man 16.3
