Think of it as a control issue. When you let someone make you feel bad you are giving him or her a little bit of control over how you feel. I find most people tend to insult others to make themselves feel superior by making someone else feel worse. The person who insulted you is probably not worth knowing and is truly a loser. When someone like that insults me I take it as a complement. For as I said earlier this person is a loser, so if they complement you they probably see something admirable in you. They see it as admirable because you are similar to them. Now I doubt you would want to be seen as someone who has the traits of a loser and that is looked at as a role model for losers.

You are trying to do something to make yourself better, and in doing that you will make the people around you better. Just look at all the positive responses you got here, surely you should let that have more of an impact than a few ignorami. Remember, when a fool gives you a complement he is calling you a fool, when a fool insults you (s)he is giving you the highest complement because they see none of their traits in you.