The real wisdom here isn't that we should simply ignore insults—it's that inferiority is an *interpretation* we must actively accept and internalize, not something others can inject into us like a toxin. Eleanor Roosevelt understood that the moment between hearing a slight and *believing* it matters is where our power lives; a cutting remark remains merely noise until we decide it describes something true about ourselves. When a colleague dismisses your idea in a meeting, the sting you feel afterward depends entirely on whether you've already half-agreed with them beforehand. She's pointing us toward that narrow space where we're neither victims nor invincible, but rather responsible—which is far less comfortable than either of those roles.