Still, we need to be moderate about this. There's a big difference between living simply and living like a slob. We should also spend plenty of time alone with ourselves. Hanging around people who are very different from us disrupts our peace of mind. It stirs up emotions we had calmed down and reopens any mental wounds that haven't fully healed yet. But we should mix these two things together — sometimes alone, sometimes with crowds. Solitude will make us miss other people. Being with others will make us miss being alone. Each one balances out the other. When we're sick of crowds, solitude will heal us. When we're sick of being alone, crowds will heal us.
Still, we must observe moderation in this matter, for there is a great difference between living simply and living slovenly. Moreover, we ought to retire a great deal into ourselves: for association with persons unlike ourselves upsets all that we had arranged, rouses the passions which were at rest, and rubs into a sore any weak or imperfectly healed place in our minds. Nevertheless we ought to mix up these two things, and to pass our lives alternately in solitude and among throngs of people; for the former will make us long for the society of mankind, the latter for that of ourselves, and the one will counteract the other: solitude will cure us when we are sick of crowds, and crowds will cure us when we are sick of solitude.