No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.

What surrounds you gets into you whether you approve of it or not, and the coarse things travel faster than the fine ones. Contempt, cynicism, a habit of complaint: none of these require effort to pick up, while patience and generosity have to be practised on purpose. Time alone can be hard, but it leaves you roughly as you are, whereas the wrong room slowly rewrites you. You usually hear the change in your own tone before you trace its source.

Consider which rooms leave you smaller than you walked in. You need make no announcement about it, only go less often.