O, how evil for hesychasts is the sight of men and intercourse with them!

For just as the sudden blast of ice, falling on the buds of the fruit-trees, nips and destroys them | so too, contacts with men, even though they be quite brief and (to all appearance) made for good purpose, wither the bloom of virtue — newly flowering in the temperate air of stillness — which covers with softness and delicacy the fruit-tree of the soul planted by the streams of the waters of repentance. | And just as the bitterness of the frost, seizing upon new shoots, consumes them | so too does conversation with men seize upon the root of a mind that has begun to sprout the tender blades of the virtues. | And if the talk of those who have controlled themselves in one particular, but who in another have minor faults, is apt to harm the soul | how much more will the chatter and sight of ignoramuses and fools (not to say of laymen)? | Homily 19, p. 220