quotations about temptation
It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Biographical Studies
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
BOB DYLAN
"Every Grain of Sand"
As a man purifies his heart, temptation ceases, for when a certain unlawful desire has been taken out of the heart, the object which formerly appealed to it can no longer do so, but becomes dead and powerless, for there is nothing left in the heart that can respond to it.
JAMES ALLEN
Above Life's Turmoil
Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled.
THOMAS A KEMPIS
The Imitation of Christ
The devil and temptations also afford us occasion to learn and understand the Scriptures, by experience and practice. Without these we should never understand them, however diligently we read and listened to them.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest.
THOMAS A KEMPIS
The Imitation of Christ
Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings. If one could follow it to its psychological roots, one would, I believe, find that the main motive for "non-attachment" is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work.
GEORGE ORWELL
Reflections on Gandhi
We find many things, to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
It is the small temptations which undermine integrity unless we watch and pray and never think them too trivial to be resisted.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Rose in Bloom
The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as the greatest goods.
THOMAS MERTON
No Man Is an Island
Some men flee from temptation, but others just crawl away from it hoping it will overtake them.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation,
But many a worm had pierced the foundation.
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
"Blackberries"
It is not the great temptations that ruin us; it is the little ones.
JOHN W. DE FOREST
Seacliff, or The Mystery of the Westervelts
To avoid temptation, yield.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Too little temptation can lead to virtue.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
It is a most fearful fact to think of, that in every heart there is some secret spring that would be weak at the touch of temptation, and that is liable to be assailed. Fearful, and yet salutary to think of; for the thought may serve to keep our moral nature braced. It warns us that we can never stand at ease, or lie down in this field of life, without sentinels of watchfulness and campfires of prayer.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.
RITA MAE BROWN
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
An untempted soul may be innocent, but cannot be virtuous, for virtue is the choice of right when wrong presses itself upon us and demands our choosing.
LYMAN ABBOTT
The Theology of an Evolutionist
Temptation is woman's weapon and man's excuse.
H. L. MENCKEN
Mencken Chrestomathy