Abba Evagrius said "Restrain yourself from affection toards many people, for fear lest your spirit be distracted, so that your interior peace may not be disturbed".

He also said "take away temptations and no-one will be saved."

Evagrius wrote "A man who is tied up cannot run.Nor can the intellect tha tis a slave to passion perceive the realm of spiritual prayer. For it is dragged about by impassioned thoughts and cannot stay still.

Learn from the man who owed ten thousand talents that, if you do not forgive your debtor, you yourself will not be forgiven. For it is said "He delivered him to the tormentors"

-Both these excerpts are from his treatise "On Prayer".

Evagrius Ponticus is best known for being the first to formulate what would become known as the Seven Deadly Sins.