Recently ran across this quote by J.H. Jowett:
Now, the range of our possible sufferings is determined by the largeness of our heart. It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows by the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if it is your ambition to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is perfectly simple — cut the wings of every soaring purpose and cultivate a little life centered on yourself, with the fewest correspondences and relations.
By doing this you will escape a lot of life afflictions. Cultivate negations, and large tracts of the universe will cease to exist. For instance, cultivate deafness and you will not hear horrifying things. Cultivate blindness and you will not see ugly things. Stupefy a sense, and you shut out a world. And, therefore, it is literally true that if you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass.