quotations about temptation
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour.... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?
CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Jane Eyre
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
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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
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"
The Devil's subtlest temptations are the ones you yield to without even knowing you've given in.
GLEN DUNCAN
Talulla Rising
Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation,
But many a worm had pierced the foundation.
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
"Blackberries"
So you tell yourself you are pretty fine clay
To have tricked temptation and turned it away,
But wait, my friend, for a different day;
Wait till you want to want to!
EDMUND VANCE COOKE
Desire
There are those who say that temptation can be barricaded beyond the door. The ones who think that stray desires can be driven out of the heart like the moneychangers from the temple. Maybe they can, if you patrol your weak points day and night, don't look, don't smell, don't dream.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
Written on the Body
Too little temptation can lead to virtue.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
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
Get thee behind me, Satan.
BIBLE
Matthew 16:23
There's a lesson in every temptation.
FRANK HERBERT
God Emperor of Dune
The man who loves and seeks the excitement of temptation, shows that he is restrained from sin by fear, and not by principle--that while his life is on the side of virtue, his affections lean to vice.
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
Gold-foil, Hammered from Popular Proverbs
Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Love's Labour's Lost
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
Bearing up against temptations and prevailing over them, is the very thing wherein the whole life of religion consists; 'Tis the trial which God puts upon us in this world, by which we are to make evidence of our love and obedience to Him, and of our fitness to be made members of His kingdom.
SAMUEL CLARKE
attributed, Works, Containing Sermons on Several Subjects, Volume 2