The wise and sensible…
do not think that disgrace
lies in enduring them
[i.e. malignant glances, laughs,
strikes or reviles],
but rather in doing them.
— Musonius Rufus
(Will The Philosopher Prosecute Anyone For Personal Injury?)
‘For what does the man who submits to insult do that is wrong? It is the doer of wrong who forthwhile puts himself to shame, while the sufferer, who does nothing but submit, has no reason to feel shame or disgrace…
[T]o scheme how to bite back the biter and to return evil for evil is the act not of a human being but a wild beast, who is incapable of reasoning that the majority of wrongs are done to men through ignorance and misunderstanding, from which man will cease as soon as he has been taught.’
— Musonius Rufus
(Will The Philosopher Prosecute Anyone For Personal Injury?)