Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

The saying frames emotional injury as something that depends on the level at which one chooses to live inwardly. By “raising” the soul, the speaker adopts a stance of detachment and self-governance: insults and slights are treated as external events that need not penetrate one’s inner life. The moral emphasis is on dignity and resilience—responding to offense not with retaliation but with an enlargement of perspective. Although often attributed to Descartes, the sentiment aligns more broadly with Stoic and early modern ideals of mastering the passions through reason and cultivating an interior freedom that cannot be easily disturbed by others’ judgments.