Augustine on distractions

Someone who is troubled in his heart by a bad conscience is like a man who leaves his house and cannot live in it because of a burst pipe or smoke. He who does not have a quiet heart cannot live joyously in his own heart. Such men go out of themselves... they seek rest in trivia: in spectacles, in luxuries, in evils of every kind. Why do they wish themselves well outwardly? Because things are not well with them inwardly.

- Augustine, Enarrationes in psalmos 100.4.