I realise, to my delight,

that the up-side of having near-total respect for words is that you essentially become immune to insults.

The good ones, anyway ('touché' is one of the most frequently-deployed words in my vocabulary); the feeble ones just make you angry.

To wit:

"You pedantic, smarmy, ass!"
"Ah yes. I had forgotten how fond you people are... were... of lower life form-based insults. What's next? Cheeky monkey?
"Oh, I can do better than that."
"Really? I'll get my notebook."

- Eoin Colfer, And Another Thing...