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"
To avoid temptation, yield.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
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
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
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
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
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 difference between those whom the world esteems as good and those whom it condemns as bad, is in many cases little else than that the former have been better sheltered from temptation.
JULIUS CHARLES HARE
Guesses at Truth
The Devil's subtlest temptations are the ones you yield to without even knowing you've given in.
GLEN DUNCAN
Talulla Rising
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Too little temptation can lead to virtue.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Every time the enemy throws us off our guard, and we give way to temptation, he gains so much; he weakens us and strengthens himself; when we resist temptation, it strengthens the Saints and weakens the enemy.
BRIGHAM YOUNG
Journal of Discourses
Could'st thou boast, O child of weakness!
O'er the sons of wrong and strife,
Were their strong temptations planted
In thy path of life?
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
What the Voice Said
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
None are known to be good, till they have opportunity to be bad.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
We find many things, to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
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
Temptation hath a music for all ears.
NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS
"Extract"
Temptation is woman's weapon and man's excuse.
H. L. MENCKEN
Mencken Chrestomathy