From Sacred Space

There is a story from the desert fathers. A certain brother came to the abbot Moses seeking a word from him. The old man said, “Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” The ability to sit still, in silence, with nothing except the silence (not even a mobile phone or the sound of music), really does frighten people, as Saint Anthony explained: “The one who sits in solitude and quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking and seeing; yet against one thing shall he continually battle: that is, his own heart.” More than a thousand years later Pascal was of the same mind: “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”