Quotes and Sayings about Temptation
"Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice."
- Lyman Abbott
(Related: Life, Virtue, Innocence, March, Temptation, Vice)
"Do not worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older it will avoid you."
- Joey Adams
(Related: Temptation, Will, Worry)
"No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it."
- James Allen
(Related: Heart, Man, Temptation)
"God grant you the strength to fight off the temptations of surrender."
- Walter Annenberg
(Related: God, Strength, Fight, Surrender, Temptations)
"In short, all things that please the natural man in this world, are, to a true Christian, only so many crosses and temptations, allurements of sin and snares of death, that continually exercise his virtue."
- Johann Arndt
(Related: Death, Virtue, Christian, Exercise, Man, Sin, Temptations, World)
"It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations."
- Walter Bagehot
(Related: Temptations, Vices)
"The mainstream media may have trouble resisting the temptation to declare that Karl Rove has been demoted, but the truth is quite the contrary. By giving up his role as deputy White House chief of staff, Rove has been freed to do what he does best: shape big issues and develop strategies to win elections."
- Fred Barnes
(Related: Truth, Elections, Giving, May, Media, Temptation, Trouble)
"Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances."
- Orlando A. Battista
(Related: Temptations, Will)
"Idleness is a constant sin, and labor is a duty. Idleness is the devil's home for temptation and for unprofitable, distracting musings; while labor profit others and ourselves."
- Anne Baxter
(Related: Home, Devil, Duty, Idleness, Labor, Profit, Sin, Temptation)
"All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot."
- Henry Ward Beecher
(Related: Men, Man, Right, Temptation)
"The first temptation, upon meeting an old friend after many years, is always to - look the other way."
- Ugo Betti
(Related: Friend, First, Meeting, Old, Temptation, Years)
"Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure."
- Ambrose Bierce
(Related: Pleasure, Temptation)
"Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission."
- Theodore Bikel
(Related: People, Fear, Temptation)
"For years my wedding ring has done its job. It has led me not into temptation. It has reminded my husband numerous times at parties that it's time to go home. It has been a source of relief to a dinner companion. It has been a status symbol in the maternity ward."
- Erma Bombeck
(Related: Time, Wedding, Home, Husband, Job, Symbol, Temptation, Years)
"Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere."
- Robert Bork
(Related: Nature, Ideas, Constitution, Judges, Man, Temptations, Utopia)
"Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart."
- Thomas Boston
(Related: Heart, Fire, Temptation)
"The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once."
- F. H. Bradley
(Related: Force, Struggle, Temptation, Yield)
"Temptation to behave is terrible."
- Bertolt Brecht
(Related: Temptation)
"Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself."
- Rita Mae Brown
(Related: Temptation)
"I am persuaded that in the case of elected officials, the overwhelming temptation is to conclude that it is more important for your constituents that you be reelected than that you deal honestly with them."
- James L. Buckley
(Related: Temptation)
"Given the difficulty of resisting such temptations over the longer run, a proper concern for the welfare of congressional souls may well be the ultimate argument in favor of term limitations."
- James L. Buckley
(Related: Argument, Concern, Difficulty, Limitations, May, Temptations, Welfare)
"Once it becomes impossible for members of Congress to make a career of legislative service, the temptation to bend a vote for whatever reason may yield to the better angels of their nature."
- James L. Buckley
(Related: Nature, Angels, Career, Congress, May, Reason, Service, Temptation, Vote, Yield)
"The people ask much, often more than any government can give. We must resist the temptation to promise solutions to all problems."
- Jane Byrne
(Related: Government, People, Problems, Promise, Temptation)
"There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted."
- James Branch Cabell
(Related: Memory, Satisfaction, Temptation)
"Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs."
- Lydia M. Child
(Related: Man, Needs, Temptations, Trials)
"If it is indeed impossible - or at least very difficult - to inhabit the consciousness of an animal, then in writing about animals there is a temptation to project upon them feelings and thoughts that may belong only to our own human mind and heart."
- J. M. Coetzee
(Related: Feelings, Heart, Thoughts, Animals, Consciousness, May, Mind, Project, Temptation, Writing)
"Knowledge of God's Word is a bulwark against deception, temptation, accusation, even persecution."
- Edwin Louis Cole
(Related: God, Knowledge, Deception, Persecution, Temptation, Word)
"No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object."
- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
(Related: Temptation, Value)
"The most important lesson I've learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did."
- Penelope Cruz
(Related: Business, Temptations)
"I never give in to the temptation to be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be too ridiculous."
- Jacques Derrida
(Related: Being, Temptation)
"Judges need to restrict themselves to the proper resolution of the case before them. They need to avoid the temptation to set broad policy."
- Mike DeWine
(Related: Policy, Judges, Resolution, Temptation)
"The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason."
- T. S. Eliot
(Related: Deed, Reason, Right, Temptation, Wrong)
"We gain the strength of the temptation we resist."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Strength, Gain, Temptation)
"Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory."
- Frederick William Faber
(Related: Victory, Temptation)
"Nor is it the least advantage to health, accruing from such a way of life, that it expose those who follow it to fewer temptations to vice, than persons who live in crowded society."
- William Falconer
(Related: Society, Health, Life, Temptations, Vice)
"Temptation has been here ever since the Garden of Eden."
- Jerry Falwell
(Related: Garden, Temptation)
"You will encounter many distractions and many temptations to put your goal aside: The security of a job, a wife who wants kids, whatever. But if you hang in there, always following your vision, I have no doubt you will succeed."
- Larry Flynt
(Related: Wife, Goal, Vision, Doubt, Job, Kids, Security, Succeed, Temptations, Will)
"The pursuit of beauty is much more dangerous nonsense than the pursuit of truth or goodness, because it affords a stronger temptation to the ego."
- Northrop Frye
(Related: Beauty, Truth, Ego, Goodness, Nonsense, Pursuit, Temptation)
"One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some of the time, incompetent or crazy."
- John Gardner
(Related: Time, Devil, Editors, Fight, Temptation)
"In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History?"
- Charles de Gaulle
(Related: History, Men, Friend, Events, Now, Satisfaction, Solitude, Temptation)
"That's what I loved about Temptation Island. I don't even know why they did it."
- Kathy Griffin
(Related: Temptation)
"The temptations are great to simply retreat to the domain of private life and give up on our public problems."
- Lee H. Hamilton
(Related: Life, Problems, Public, Temptations)
"Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?"
- Robert Browning Hamilton
(Related: Man, Temptation)
"We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation."
- William Hazlitt
(Related: Prohibition, Temptation)
"Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again."
- Robert A. Heinlein
(Related: May, Temptation, Yield)
"It is a temptation for me to wear all my rings at once."
- Anna Held
(Related: Temptation)
"Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colors that are but skin-deep."
- Matthew Henry
(Related: Colors, Gay, Skin, Temptation)
"Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in gay, fine colours, that are but skin-deep."
- Matthew Henry
(Related: Gay, Skin, Temptation)
"Why resist temptation? There will always be more."
- Don Herold
(Related: Temptation, Will)
"You oughtn't to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd."
- Anthony Hope
(Related: Temptation, Yield)
"When I am able to resist the temptation to judge others, I can see them as teachers of forgiveness in my life, reminding me that I can only have peace of mind when I forgive rather than judge."
- Gerald Jampolsky
(Related: Forgiveness, Peace, Life, Mind, Teachers, Temptation)
"I beg you to look at the promising boys and beautiful girls in your homes and in your communities, and then you will not put these temptations in their way."
- Thomas Jordan Jarvis
(Related: Boys, Girls, Temptations, Will)
"Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes."
- E. Stanley Jones
(Related: Freedom, Living, Mistakes, Temptation)
"Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values - and witnesses."
- Franklin P. Jones
(Related: Values, Nothing, Sound, Temptation)
"What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don't want to discourage it completely."
- Franklin P. Jones
(Related: People, Temptation, Want)
"I have been exposed to a great amount of temptation throughout the course of my career."
- DeForest Kelley
(Related: Career, Temptation)
"We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are."
- Thomas Kempis
(Related: Temptation)
"I am not stopped by low funds, physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, or temptations to stop and work on some other production that would be more financially rewarding."
- Richard King
(Related: Work, Exhaustion, Production, Temptations)
"Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Related: Bitterness, Temptation)
"The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry."
- Henry A. Kissinger
(Related: Policy, American, Foreign policy, Psychiatry, Temptation)
"If priests were allowed to marry, if this would be an optional thing, and if he could have wife and children, he would certainly have less temptation to satisfy certain sexual impulses with minors."
- Hans Kung
(Related: Wife, Children, Impulses, Temptation)
"What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged."
- Steve Lacy
(Related: Strategy, Survival, Temptations)
"A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor."
- Ring Lardner
(Related: Mistake, Self, Temptation, Writers)
"That free will was demonstrated in the placing of temptation before man with the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree which would give him a knowledge of good and evil, with the disturbing moral conflict to which that awareness would give rise."
- Kenneth Scott Latourette
(Related: Knowledge, Awareness, Conflict, Evil, Free will, Man, Temptation)
"Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we'll find it."
- Sam Levenson
(Related: Temptation)
"There is no arguing with the pretenders to a divine knowledge and to a divine mission. They are possessed with the sin of pride, they have yielded to the perennial temptation."
- Walter Lippmann
(Related: Knowledge, Mission, Pride, Sin, Temptation)
"All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it."
- John Locke
(Related: Men, Error, Interest, Passion, Temptation)
"By and large the United States has been able to resist the temptation to close its doors to the world."
- Roger Mahony
(Related: states, Temptation, United, World)
"The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil."
- Thomas Malthus
(Related: Virtue, Evil, Temptation)
"There's an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing."
- David McCullough
(Related: Temptation, Writing)
"If we know anything about man, it's that he's not pacific. The temptation to butcher anyone considered undesirable seems to be a common temptation, not always resisted."
- Larry McMurtry
(Related: Man, Temptation)
"Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: Work, Body, Force, Temptation)
"Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: Man, Temptation, Woman)
"The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little."
- Thomas Merton
(Related: Temptation)
"The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality."
- James A. Michener
(Related: Dreams, Life, Defeat, Reality, Temptation)
"Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it."
- Mary Wortley Montagu
(Related: Trust, Virtue, First, Force, Necessity, Temptation)
"When one cannot appraise out of one's own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser."
- Marianne Moore
(Related: Experience, Temptation)
"It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer."
- George Muller
(Related: Enjoyment, Prayer, Reading, Satan, Spirit, Temptation, Word)
"It was a decision to work clean. I just prefer to work that way. I have no problem with comedians who don't work that way. There was a temptation in the early '70s to reconsider. I decided against it."
- Bob Newhart
(Related: Work, Decision, Comedians, Temptation)
"Those who believe in the importance of serving others should lead the way by fighting against the temptation we all have, and maybe especially as we age, to close in upon ourselves."
- Marvin Olasky
(Related: Age, Fighting, Importance, Temptation)
"Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought."
- Margaret Oliphant
(Related: Temptations)
"Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch."
- Robert Orben
(Related: People, Temptation)
"Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings."
- George Orwell
(Related: People, Saints, Temptation, Want)
"Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction."
- John Owen
(Related: Food, Destruction, Exercise, Man, May, Poison, Temptation)
"Pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one. The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery."
- Pope John Paul II
(Related: Challenge, Freedom, Man, Nationalism, Reality, Slavery, Temptation, Today)
"I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology, and we should resist the temptation, which sometimes scientists give in to, to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science."
- John Polkinghorne
(Related: Science, Creation, Doctrine, Scientists, Temptation, Theology)
"He's meant to be that classic Homer, Ulysses, Hercules - a character who goes out or has some gift of some kind. He goes on a journey of discovery and part of that is falling into darkness - the temptations of life."
- Robert Redford
(Related: Life, Character, Darkness, Discovery, Journey, Temptations)
"We're all going to be victims of temptation at several points in our lives."
- Smokey Robinson
(Related: Temptation, Victims)
"You know what, life is full of temptations."
- Smokey Robinson
(Related: Life, Temptations)
"Values are principles and ideas that bring meaning to the seemingly mundane experience of life. A meaningful life that ultimately brings happiness and pride requires you to respond to temptations as well as challenges with honor, dignity, and courage."
- Laura Schlessinger
(Related: Experience, Happiness, Life, Ideas, Courage, Values, Dignity, Honor, Meaning, Pride, Principles, Temptations)
"Most fathers don't see the war within the daughter, her struggles with conflicting images of the idealized and flawed father, her temptation both to retreat to Daddy's lap and protection and to push out of his embrace to that of beau and the world beyond home."
- Victoria Secunda
(Related: Home, War, Father, Daughter, Fathers, Protection, Temptation, World)
"We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Virtue, Day, Night, Temptation, Today, Vices, Will)
"These days the temptation to use steroids in sports has become too great for many young athletes."
- Jim Sensenbrenner
(Related: Sports, Athletes, Temptation)
"Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue."
- William Shakespeare
(Related: Virtue, Sin, Temptation)
"Virtue is insufficient temptation."
- George Bernard Shaw
(Related: Virtue, Temptation)
"I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me."
- George Bernard Shaw
(Related: Temptation)
"Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity."
- George Bernard Shaw
(Related: Marriage, Opportunity, Popular, Temptation)
"Secrecy sets barriers between men, but at the same time offers the seductive temptation to break through the barriers by gossip or confession."
- Georg Simmel
(Related: Time, Men, Confession, Gossip, Secrecy, Temptation)
"The temptations to wrong are many; they spring out of a corrupt nature."
- Matthew Simpson
(Related: Nature, Spring, Temptations, Wrong)
"The whole mystery of temptation is to have sins suggested to us, and to be swept after them by a sudden enthusiasm, which sometimes feels as strong as the Spirit of God ever made in us the enthusiasm for virtue."
- George A. Smith
(Related: God, Enthusiasm, Virtue, Mystery, Spirit, Temptation)
"Let a man be but in earnest in praying against a temptation as the tempter is in pressing it, and he needs not proceed by a surer measure."
- Robert South
(Related: Man, Measure, Needs, Temptation)
"Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in."
- Billy Sunday
(Related: Devil, Temptation)
"It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution."
- Anthony Trollope
(Related: Power, Wisdom, Thought, Dying, May, Question, Resolution, Results, Temptation, Years)
"There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice."
- Mark Twain
(Related: Cowardice, Temptation)
"Some are wrong because they are not strong enough to fight temptation and some some are wrong because they do not know."
- Arsene Wenger
(Related: Fight, Temptation, Wrong)
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."
- Mae West
(Related: Temptation)
"I can resist everything except temptation."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: Temptation)
"Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: Courage, Strength, Temptation, Temptations, Weakness, Yield)
"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: Temptation, Yield)
"Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: Country, Temptations)
"Let's remember the children who come from broken homes, surrounded by crime, drugs, temptation, their peers having babies out of wedlock, but who still manage to get a good education despite the many obstacles they face every day."
- Armstrong Williams
(Related: Education, Babies, Children, Crime, Day, Drugs, Obstacles, Temptation)
"The Temptations still stand today, not in spite of those who left us, but because of them."
- Otis Williams
(Related: Temptations, Today)
"Whether something is old-fashioned or not doesn't resolve the question of whether it's true or not. I can see the temptation of simply thinking, 'Well, there's a cultural mainstream which flows neatly in one direction. You just align with it'. And that really won't do."
- Rowan Williams
(Related: Direction, Old, Question, Temptation, Thinking)
"Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty."
- Earl Wilson
(Related: Duty, Temptation, Whisper)
"About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you're fighting temptation."
- Tom Wilson
(Related: Time, Winning, Fighting, Fun, Losing, Temptation)
"The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations."
- John Wycliffe
(Related: Life, Enemy, Temptations)
"Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."
- William Butler Yeats
(Related: Soul, Energy, Right, Spirit, Temptation)
"There are numerous bugbears in the profession of a politician. First, ordinary life suffers. Second, there are many temptations to ruin you and those around you. And I suppose third, and this is rarely discussed, people at the top generally have no friends."
- Boris Yeltsin
(Related: Life, People, First, Friends, Profession, Ruin, Temptations)
"I look at modern life and I see people not taking responsibility for their lives. The temptation to blame, to find external causes to one's own issues is something that is particularly modern. I know that personally I find that sense of responsibility interesting."
- Edward Zwick
(Related: Life, People, Blame, Causes, Responsibility, Sense, Temptation)