Slight revision to an excellent quote

“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.”
– Russel Lynes

I love this quote, but I’d like to revise it a bit:

“If you can’t ignore an insult, top it.
If you can’t top it, laugh it off.
If you can’t laugh it off, ignore it.
And if you can’t do any of those things, it’s probably deserved.”

Sometimes, an insult can’t be laughed off because it’s not funny.

But ignoring an insult? That’s often possible, and best of all, it can frustrate and annoy the person insulting you.

No one likes to be ignored, and it can be excruciating for the kind of people who lean into insulting and name-calling:

Small-minded ignoramuses and fragile egos.

I also removed the semicolons from the quote because they are too damn slippery for my liking. I’ve published six novels and two books of nonfiction (with at least one more of each on the way), and I’ve never used a semicolon even once.