Prayer is the best of all activities for the soul. Prayer is the path to God. By prayer we obtain humility, patience and every good gift.
The man of prayer should feel tenderly towards every living thing. The man of prayer loves all men and has compassion for all, for the grace of the Holy Spirit has taught him love.
~Archimandrite Sophrony (Wisdom from Mt. Athos, pp.81,85)
Prayerful Life 
So why do we find it so difficult to spend time in prayer? I suspect because of your next quote about evil appearing good. Our time is sucked away by other things that seem better and more pressing. I need to spend more time in prayer so I can receive that grace.
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Some church fathers, St Silouan among them I think, have said that prayer is the main battleground in our spiritual struggle. Therefore it is understandable why it is so difficult because it is in prayer that we confront most directly and without distractions all that comes between us and God which must include our sin, passions such as anger, apathy, vanity etc and then the enemy who certainly wants to keep us from prayer. I think when we start to truly see how important prayer is we begin to fight more earnestly for it.
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