This antagonism between the meditative life and the practical life is only a supposed one, not a real one. If it exists at all it exists only between their extreme and therefore abnormal forms, between the wholly inactive trance state--which is temporary--and the wholly active extrovert state--which is diseased. The proper human life is not only practical but also meditative. There is necessarily a contrast between the two qualities but there need not be an antagonism.

-- Notebooks Category 3: Relax and Retreat > Chapter 1: Take Intermittent Pauses > # 79