We gain our victory over the lower nature both by struggling with it and by flight from it. That is, we need the world-arena because of the temptations and oppositions which it provides to test our strength, try our character, and reveal the real measure of our attainment. But we also need places of solitary retreat where we can detach ourselves from the outward struggle occasionally, examine its nature analytically and survey ourselves coolly. Only by playing this double role of activist and hermit, householder and monk, only by practising this double movement of entering the fight and withdrawing from it, can we achieve that properly balanced progress which is solid to the core and is as substantial as it appears to be. Let it be added, however, that whereas the world's business must necessarily take a large share of our time and energy, the recess and quietude need take only a small one.
-- Notebooks Category 3: Relax and Retreat > Chapter 1 : Take Intermittent Pauses > # 101
