“Wherever there is obedience, humility, and struggling, the demons can never take a person captive. Hardness, disobedience, and pride give birth to despondency and negligence. Then all the demons come and turn the soul of that person into a dunghill and a stable. And they do not relent until they make him responsible for new and old sins, and totally captive.”

Monastic Wisdom: The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast by Elder Joseph Hesychast