There are offences given and offences not given but taken.

Walton’s aphorism distinguishes between genuine wrongs (“offences given”) and perceived slights that arise chiefly from the hearer’s sensitivity, suspicion, or pride (“offences…taken”). The point is both ethical and social: not every feeling of injury corresponds to an actual injury, and a wise person should examine whether the harm lies in another’s action or in one’s own interpretation. In a culture that prized civility and Christian forbearance, the saying encourages restraint, charitable reading of others’ words, and self-governance—treating resentment as something we may be responsible for cultivating or refusing.