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8 phrases emotionally intelligent people use when someone talks down to them

From Socrates to Marcus Aurelius, ancient thinkers offer ways to answer condescension calmly without giving up your dignity. Here are eight phrases to try.

By Philosophy Basics Editorial Team · November 4, 2026

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8 phrases emotionally intelligent people use when someone talks down to them

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Philosophers A–Z

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From the magazine

The art of walking away: 8 Stoic lessons on leaving what doesn’t respect you

In a 2025 study at UC San Diego, people chatted with a human and an AI at the same time and picked the AI as the real person 73 percent of the time, more often than they picked the actual human

In 1859, Abraham Lincoln told a crowd of Wisconsin farmers about an Eastern king who asked his wise men for one sentence that would always be true. They gave him: "And this, too, shall pass away."

Thought of the day from Stoic philosopher Epictetus: “Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions, which they form concerning thing.”

New to philosophy? Start here.