"The straying of thoughts, inconstancy of passionate desires and uneasiness of the heart constantly disturb us, not allowing us to do a single thing as we should, and nearly always leading us astray. This illness, although it is universal and endemic, is not natural: rather, it is contracted by us willfully. The enemy knows how much this aids him, and when attempting to entice someone, he first tries to push him into the whirlpool: that is, first of all he enters into the stream of thoughts; beneath these thoughts he kindles passionate desires, and with these he agitates the heart."
-St. Theophan the Recluse
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