Temptation Quotes:

Temptation exercises our faith and teaches us to pray.

- A. B. Simpson

topic: Faith, Exercise, Temptation

Some temptations cannot be fought. One must close one's mind and fly from them

- A.J. Cronin

source: A.J Cronin (1942). “the Keys of the Kingdom”

topic: Temptation, Mind

Where there is no temptation, there is no virtue.

- Agnes Repplier

topic: Temptation, Virtue

The temptation shared by all forms of intelligence: cynicism.

- Albert Camus

topic: Temptation, Intelligence, Cynicism

And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Thinking, Temptation, Artistic

Half at least of all morality is negative and consists in keeping out of mischief. The lords prayer is less than 50 words long, and 6 of those words are devoted to asking god not to lead us into temptation.

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Prayer, Long, Temptation, Asking God

Let our posterity know that we their ancestors, uncultured and unlearned, amid all trials and temptations, were men of integrity.

- Alexander Crummell

topic: Integrity, Men, Temptation, Trials And Temptations, Man Of Integrity

We are all tempted, Mma. We are all tempted when it comes to cake.

- Alexander McCall Smith

topic: Cake, Mma, Temptation

But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Temptation, Literature, Satan, Temptation Life

Resist the temptation to think what afflicts you is peculiar to you. Have faith that what is in your consciousness can be communicated to the consciousness of all. And is, in many cases, already there.

- Alice Walker

topic: Thinking, Temptation, Peculiar

It often happens that we pray God to deliver us from some dangerous temptation, and yet God does not hear us but permits the temptation to continue troubling us. In such a case, let us understand that God permits even this for our greater good. When a soul in temptation recommends itself to God, and by His aid resists, O how it then advances in perfection.

- Alphonsus Liguori

topic: Prayer, Perfection, Temptation

The way to Heaven is straight and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure shall be disappointed; and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations.

- Alphonsus Liguori

topic: Heaven, Temptation, Wish, Resisting Temptation

In temptations against chastity, the spiritual masters advise us, not so much to contend with the bad thought, as to turn the mind to some spiritual, or, at least, indifferent object. It is useful to combat other bad thoughts face to face, but not thoughts of impurity.

- Alphonsus Liguori

topic: Spiritual, Temptation, Catholic, Spiritual Masters, Bad Thoughts

When we find ouselves in some grave danger we must not lose courage but firmly trust in God, for where there is the greatest danger, there is also the greatest help from Him who wants to be called our 'Help' in times of peace and in times of tribulation.

- Ambrose

topic: Temptation, Want, Helping

PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.

- Ambrose Bierce

topic: Life, Temptation, Add, Lure

TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.

- Ambrose Bierce

topic: Temptation, Purpose, Impulse

ASPERSE, v.t. Maliciously to ascribe to another vicious actions which one has not had the temptation and opportunity to commit.

- Ambrose Bierce

topic: Opportunity, Temptation, Action

Mature people must find their own ways to cope with their own temptations.

- Amy Dickinson

topic: Women, People, Temptation

Ignorance of true pleasure more frequently than temptation to that which is false, leads to vice.

- Ann Radcliffe

topic: Ignorance, Temptation, Vices

It is a temptation for me to wear all my rings at once.

- Anna Held

topic: Temptation, Rings

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

topic: Home, Temptation, Devil, Musings

That was my nature - going from temptation after temptation, not to sin, but to be redeemed.

- Anne Rice

topic: Temptation, Sin, Redeemed

It struck me, sharp and hard, that I had been given so many chances to save my soul that my entire life had been constructed around these chances! That was my nature - going from temptation to temptation, not to sin, but to be redeemed.

- Anne Rice

topic: Temptation, Soul, Chance

You oughtn't to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd.

- Anthony Hope

source: 'The Dolly Dialogues' (1894) no. 14

topic: Yield, Temptation, Absurd

This is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God, and toexpect temptation to his last breath.

- Anthony the Great

topic: Men, Temptation, Suffering, Orthodox Christian

Some are wrong because they are not strong enough to fight temptation and some some are wrong because they do not know.

- Arsene Wenger

topic: Strong, Fighting, Temptation, Not Strong, Not Strong Enough

It is fundamental that the great powers of Congress to conduct war and to regulate the Nation's foreign relations are subject to the constitutional requirements of due process. The imperative necessity for safeguarding these rights to procedural due process under the gravest of emergencies has existed throughout our constitutional history, for it is then, under the pressing exigencies of crisis, that there is the greatest temptation to dispense with fundamental constitutional guarantees which, it is feared, will inhibit governmental action.

- Arthur Goldberg

topic: War, Rights, Temptation, Foreign Relations, Safeguarding

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.

- Augustus William Hare

topic: Differences, Temptation, World

Consider the reasons which make us certain that we are right, but not the fact that we are certain. If you are not convinced, ignore our certainty. Don't be tempted to substitute our judgment for your own.

- Ayn Rand

topic: Temptation, Facts, Judgment

When you're not happy, you need to be strong to change, resisting the temptation of turning back. The weak goes nowhere

- Ayrton Senna

topic: Strong, Temptation, Needs

Wish there was something that I could say or do, I can resist anything but the temptation from you. But I'd rather walk alone than chase you around, I'd rather fall myself then let you drag me on down.

- Ben Harper

topic: Relationship, Fall, Temptation

Ah! when in the immortal ranks enlisted, I sometimes wonder if we shall not find That not by deeds, but by what we've resisted, Our places are assigned.

- Benjamin Whichcote

topic: Temptation, Deeds, Sometimes, Enlisted

The habit of virtue cannot be formed in a closet. Habits are formed by acts of reason in a persevering struggle through temptation.

- Bernard Gilpin

topic: Struggle, Temptation, Virtue

Prayer is a virtue that prevaileth against all temptations.

- Bernard of Clairvaux

topic: Prayer, Temptation, Virtue

It is not the temptations you have, but the decision you make about them that counts.

- Billy Graham

source: Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Donna Lee Toney (2011). “Billy Graham in Quotes”, Thomas Nelson Inc

topic: Decision, Temptation

There is nothing new about humanism. It is the yielding to Satan's first temptation of Adam and Eve: "Ye shall be as gods." (Gen. 3:5)

- Billy Graham

topic: Temptation, Firsts, Satan, Adam And Eve, Nothing New

Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.

- Billy Sunday

source: Billy Sunday, William Thomas Ellis (1917). “Billy Sunday, the Man and His Message: With His Own Words which Have Won Thousands for Christ”

topic: Doors, Temptation, Devil, Keyholes

St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent; the excitable desire is the Eve; and reason is the Adam. Our nature tempts us perpetually; criminal desire is often excited; but sin is not completed till reason consents.

- Blaise Pascal

topic: Men, Temptation, Desire, Augustine

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame And every time I pass that way I always hear my name

- Bob Dylan

topic: Flames, Names, Temptation

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

topic: Decision, Temptation, Comedian

The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.

- Bob Parsons

topic: Temptation, Succeed, Quitting

I always loved Little Anthony and the Imperials. They were like the precursors of the Temptations. I loved their music.

- Bobby Keys

topic: Temptation, Littles, Precursor

Money, big money (which is actually a relative concept) is always, under any circumstances, a seduction, a test of morals, a temptation to sin.

- Boris Yeltsin

topic: Money, Temptation, Tests

There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful.

- Boyd K. Packer

source: "The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect" by Boyd K. Packer, www.lds.org. 2004.

topic: Teacher, Scary, Temptation, Church History

Despite the opposition, trials, and temptations, you need not fail or fear.

- Boyd K. Packer

topic: Temptation, Needs, Trials, Trials And Temptations

Everyone is tested. One might think it is unfair to be singled out and subjected to a particular temptation, but this is the purpose of mortal life—to be tested. And the answer is the same for everyone: we must, and we can, resist temptations of any kind.

- Boyd K. Packer

topic: Thinking, Temptation, Purpose

The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.

- Brennan Manning

topic: Temptation, Age, Looks, Ragamuffin Gospel

I listen to a lot of old stuff like Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations.

- Brett Davern

topic: Temptation, Stuff, Marvin, Old Stuff

Never complain, never explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses.

- Brian Tracy

source: FaceBook post by Brian Tracy from Jul 26, 2014

topic: Inspiration, Temptation, Complaining, Reticence

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

topic: Giving, Temptation, Enemy

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.

- Bruno Mars

topic: Dad, Temptation, Groups

I have found that people who can successfully resist temptation invariably lead depressingly stunted lives.

- C.D. Payne

source: C.D. Payne (2009). “Youth in Revolt: Now a major motion picture from Dimension Films starring Michael Cera”, p.33, Broadway Books

topic: People, Temptation, Found

Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.

- Calvin Coolidge

topic: Money, Carpe Diem, Temptation, Carpe, Public Money

to tempt and be tempted are closely allied; and in spite of all the finest moral maxims buried in the mind, when emotion interferes, when feeling makes its appearance, one is already much further involved that one realizes, and I have still not learnt how to prevent its appearance.

- Catherine the Great

topic: Temptation, Feelings, Mind

For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied - whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of.

- Catherine the Great

topic: Feelings, Temptation, Matter

Do not romanticize the poor...We are all people, human beings subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty damages our dignity.

- Cesar Chavez

topic: People, Temptation, Poverty

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

topic: Men, History, Temptation, Tumult

Do today's duty, fight today's temptation; do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.

- Charles Kingsley

topic: Fighting, Temptation, Today

Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle

- Charles Spurgeon

topic: Temptation, Idle, Industrious

Temptation out of reach does you no good.

- Craig Johnson

source: Craig Johnson (2013). “The Walt Longmire Mystery Series Boxed Set”, p.236, Penguin

topic: Temptation, Doe

Which is scarier-- lust or temptation?

- Craig Thompson

topic: Temptation, Lust

It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.

- D. A. Carson

topic: Passion, Temptation, Sin

The experiments show quite clearly that, as you resist more and more temptation, you're actually more and more likely to fail.

- Dan Ariely

topic: Temptation, Failing, Shows

When a man resists sin on human motive only, he will not hold out long.

- Daniel H. Wilson

topic: Men, Long, Temptation

There's a great temptation to clean everything up and make everything more perfect. You have to know when to stop and stop doing it, or you might end up with something that sounds metronomic.

- David Byrne

topic: Perfect, Temptation, Sound

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

topic: Writing, Temptation, Awful

The temptation to entertain instead of selling is contagious.

- David Ogilvy

topic: Temptation, Selling, Contagious

I have been exposed to a great amount of temptation throughout the course of my career.

- DeForest Kelley

topic: Careers, Temptation, Exposed

Being free means "being free for the other," because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

topic: Mean, Temptation, Being Free

Our response to temptation reveals the substance of our faith.

- Dillon Burroughs

topic: Temptation, Substance, Response

Why resist temptation? There will always be more.

- Don Herold

source: Don Herold (1925). “Bigger & better”

topic: Temptation, Resisting Temptation

We all have the temptation to be backseat drivers when it comes to decisions that don't work out the way we want.

- Don Mattingly

topic: Work Out, Decision, Temptation, Backseat Drivers, Backseat

My Christmas prayer is that I would remain close to God, and He close to me. With all the suffering in the world today, there is the temptation to fall to fear… we need to be near the Lord.. we need the Hope of Christmas.

- Don Moen

source: "A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life". Book by Shantideva, www.huffingtonpost.com. c. 700 AD.

topic: Prayer, Fall, Temptation, Christmas Prayer

I am human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because mankind chose to follow Satan. God is reaching out to me to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved.

- Donald Miller

topic: Temptation, Suffering, Might, Rescue Me, Learning To Trust

If you are going to be underestimated by people who speak more rapidly, the temptation is to speak slowly and strategically and outwit them.

- Doris Betts

topic: People, Temptation, Speak

The dangerous temptation of wildlife films is that they can lull us into thinking we can get by without the original models -- that we might not need animals in the flesh.

- Doug Peacock

topic: Animal, Thinking, Temptation

One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys.

- E. M. Forster

topic: Evil, Temptation, Looks

Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes.

- E. Stanley Jones

topic: Mistake, Mean, Temptation

Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty.

- Earl Wilson

topic: Temptation, Duty, Heard, Temptation Life

I have always derived indescribable pleasure from leading a decent woman to the edge of sin and leaving her there to live between the temptation and the fear of that sin.

- Edmond de Goncourt

topic: Temptation, Leaving, Sin, Decent Woman

How many perils doe enfold The righteous man to make him daily fall.

- Edmund Spenser

topic: Fall, Men, Temptation, Faerie, Righteous Man

So you tell yourself you are pretty find 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

topic: Waiting, Temptation, Clay, Different Day, Temptation Life

The temptation is not here, where you are reading about it or praying about it. It is down in your shop, among bales and boxes, ten-penny nails, and sand-paper.

- Edwin Hubbel Chapin

topic: Reading, Temptation, Nails

Knowledge of God's Word is a bulwark against deception, temptation, accusation, even persecution.

- Edwin Louis Cole

topic: God, Hype, Temptation, False Accusation

Temptation can be tormenting, but remember: The torment of temptation to sin is nothing to compare with the torment of the consequences of sin. Remorse and regret cannot compensate for sin....though sins can be forgiven immediately - the consequences can last a lifetime

- Edwin Louis Cole

topic: Regret, Temptation, Lasts, Consequences Of Sin

A standing army is like a standing member. It's an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure.

- Elbridge Gerry

source: Constitutional Convention, 1787.

topic: Adventure, Army, Temptation, Domestic Tranquility

Sooner or later every gardener must face the fact that certain things are going to die on him. It is a temptation to be anthropomorphic about plants, to suspect that they do it to annoy.

- Eleanor Perenyi

topic: Temptation, Gardening, Faces

Temptations make one very censorious. If you are virtuous you condemn the wicked and if you are wicked, you condemn the virtuous.

- Elizabeth Bibesco

topic: Temptation, Wicked, Virtuous

Being a poet is one of the unhealthier jobs--no regular hours, so many temptations!

- Elizabeth Bishop

source: Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell (2008). “Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell”

topic: Jobs, Writing, Temptation

When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.

- Elizabeth Kostova

source: Elizabeth Kostova (2010). “The Historian”, p.19, Hachette UK

topic: Book, Long, Temptation

This mortal probation is a brief period-just a short span, linking the eternity of the past with the eternity of the future. Yet it was to be a period of tremendous importance. It is, in fact, the most vital period of our entire eternal existence. In this mortal state we come face to face with innumerable temptations and pressures. Sometimes we come in contact with advocates of wrongdoing, disobedience, and sin. Lucifer is going about tempting those who can be tempted to see if he can lead them astray.

- ElRay L. Christiansen

topic: Past, Temptation, Pressure, Probation

Between the demand to be clear,and the temptation to be obscure, impossible to decide which deserves more respect.

- Emile M. Cioran

topic: Temptation, Demand, Impossible, Deserve More

You are out of the way of temptation and out of the way of the tempter - I didn't mean to make you wicked - but I was - and am - and shall be - and I was with you so much that I couldn't help contaminate.

- Emily Dickinson

topic: Mean, Temptation, Wicked

O help me Father in heaven to overcome and resist temptation in every form or shape.

- Emmeline B. Wells

topic: Father, Heaven, Temptation

wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to temptation!

- Eric Jerome Dickey

topic: Temptation, Way, Broads, Grace Christian, Tormented Souls

Money is emphasized in Scripture simply because our temptation to love it is inexplicably powerful.

- Erwin W. Lutzer

topic: Christian, Powerful, Temptation

the writer must resist this temptation [to quote] and do his best with his own tools. It would be most convenient for us musicians if, arrived at a given emotional crisis in our work, we could simply stick in a few bars of Brahms or Schubert. Indeed many composers have no hesitation in so doing. But I have never heard the practice defended; possibly because that hideous symbol of petty larceny, the inverted comma, cannot well be worked into a musical score.

- Ethel Smyth

source: Ethel Smyth (1922). “Streaks of life”

topic: Emotional, Practice, Temptation, Larceny, Brahms

Let my temptation be a book, which I shall purchase, hold and keep.

- Eugene Field

source: Eugene Field (2012). “A Little Book of Western Verse”, p.47, tredition

topic: Book, Temptation

Let my temptation be a book.

- Eugene Field

source: Eugene Field (2012). “A Little Book of Western Verse”, p.47, tredition

topic: Inspirational, Book, Temptation

When you are tempted to look elsewhere for greener pastures, just remember someone else is probably looking at yours. And if another pasture looks greener, perhaps it is getting better care and attention. Grass is always greener . . . where it is watered.

- Ezra Taft Benson

topic: Temptation, Get Better, Looks, Pastures, Grass Is Always Greener

What is impossible to me as an imitator of Christ, becomes perfectly natural as a participant of Christ. It is Only when Christ nullifies the force of my inherent "self' life," and communicates to me a Divine life, that Christian living in its true sense, is at all possible for me.

- F. Huegel

topic: Christian, Self, Temptation, Christian Living, Divine Life

If the 'self-life' is supreme, Satan does not have to be invited in. The lines are already set for the 'electric' current to flow. Satan is master of ceremonies, though he be apparently non-existent.

- F. Huegel

topic: Self, Temptation, Lines, Master Ceremony, Electric Current

For me, temptation is life and I have a gargantuan appetite for everything.

- Felix Dennis

topic: Temptation, Appetite

The temptations of prosperity insinuate themselves after a gentle, but very powerful manner; so that we are but little aware of them and less able to withstand them.

- Francis Atterbury

topic: Powerful, Temptation, Littles

I have one reason why you should walk away from that temptation right now. One reason: God. Is. Better.

- Francis Chan

topic: Temptation, Reason, Should

When the flesh presents thee with delights, then present thyself with dangers; where the world possesses thee with vain hopes, there possess thyself with true fear; when the devil brings thee oil, bring thou vinegar. The way to be safe is never to be secure.

- Francis Quarles

topic: Oil, Temptation, Devil

Temptations are a file which rub off much of the rust of our self-confidence.

- Francois Fenelon

topic: Self Confidence, Self, Temptation

And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'That path leads ever down into stagnation.

- Frank Herbert

topic: Temptation, Path, Warning, Stagnation

Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory.

- Frederick William Faber

topic: Temptation, Victory, Resistance, Resisting Temptation, Temptation Life

As the worlds getting filled with temptations, were getting a bit frivolous and a bit fickle.

- Freida Pinto

topic: Temptation, Fickle, World, Frivolous

If yon wish to be like the gods on earth, to be free in the realms of the dead, pluck not the fruit from the garden! In appearance it may glisten to the eye; but the perishable pleasure of possession quickly avenges the curse of curiosity.

- Friedrich Schiller

topic: Eye, Garden, Temptation, Glisten

Holiness is not freedom from temptation, but power to overcome temptation.

- G. Campbell Morgan

topic: Temptation, Overcoming, Holiness

I would urge my fellow conservatives to avoid the temptation to crow about it or take credit.

- Gary Bauer

topic: Temptation, Crow, Credit

As your temptations become greater, so does your ability to make responsible choices.

- Gary Zukav

topic: Choices, Temptation, Doe

If you decide that you cannot beat a temptation, what you are really doing is giving yourself permission to be irresponsible.

- Gary Zukav

topic: Giving, Temptation, Beats, Giving Yourself

Temptation is a dress rehearsal for a karmic experience of negativity.

- Gary Zukav

topic: Negativity, Temptation, Dresses

The temptation to vivify the tale and make it walk abroad on its own legs is hard to deny.

- Gelett Burgess

topic: Temptation, Legs, Deny

I'm highly aware that some impulses are harder to ignore than others. I'm aware that fear of consequences causes us to guard our secrets. But it's our actions when faced with temptation that define who we are. It's our courage in admitting what we've done wrong that makes us forgivable.

- Gena Showalter

topic: Temptation, Secret, Admitting

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

- George Bernard Shaw

topic: Humorous, Profound, Temptation, Resisting Temptation

Not a sorrow, not a burden, not a temptation, not a bereavement, not a disappointment, not a care, not a groan or tear, but has its antidote in God's rich and inexhaustible resources.

- George C. Lorimer

source: "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (p. 282), 1895.

topic: God, Disappointment, Temptation

Afflictions, like bills and pikes, make a terrible show when they cannot reach us; but the temptations of prosperity, like unseen bullets, wound and kill us before they are discerned.

- George Downame

topic: Temptation, Affliction, Bills

Plainness has its peculiar temptations quite as much as beauty.

- George Eliot

topic: Beauty, Temptation, Peculiar, Plainness, Health Beauty

Often the work of the Lord itself may be a temptation to keep us from that communion with Him which is so essential to the benefit of our own souls.

- George Muller

topic: Temptation, Soul, Essentials

The riches of His free grace cause me daily to triumph over all the temptations of the wicked one, who is very vigilant, and seeks all occasions to disturb me.

- George Whitefield

topic: Christian, Blessing, Temptation, All Occasions

To walk before God and in His presence, is the ground and the costly jewel of true Christian living. I would have you above all things to grasp this firmly,because, when it is rightly understood and practiced, it includes all else.

- Gerhard Tersteegen

topic: Christian, Jewels, Temptation, Christian Living

He brings to naught, destroys and rejects all that is not His own work; how He draws everything to Himself and absorbs it, that at last He may live and work in us and through us and reign alone as king. Happy the soul who refuses nothing to love, but places everything at His disposal, for only thus may all our works be done more and more in God.

- Gerhard Tersteegen

topic: Kings, Temptation, Soul

When temptation comes your way, name that boastful, deceitful giant “Goliath!” and do with it as David did to the Philistine of Gath.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

topic: Names, Temptation, Giants, Goliath

Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse.

- H. L. Mencken

topic: Men, Temptation, Weapons

Evil in the Third Reich had lost the quality by which most people recognize it-the quality of temptation.

- Hannah

topic: People, Evil, Temptation

Exasperation with the threefold frustration of action -- the unpredictability of its outcome, the irreversibility of the process, and the anonymity of its authors -- is almost as old as recorded history. It has always been a great temptation, for men of action no less than for men of thought, to find a substitute for action in the hope that the realm of human affairs may escape the haphazardness and moral irresponsibility inherent in a plurality of agents.

- Hannah Arendt

topic: Men, Frustration, Temptation, Exasperation

You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations, your temperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care of your God, and leave them there. He made you and therefore He understands you, and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it.

- Hannah Whitall Smith

source: Hannah Whitall Smith (2009). “The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life”, p.44, Moody Publishers

topic: Hands, Temptation, Feelings

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

topic: Children, Wife, Temptation

The actor's physical type isn't and shouldn't be the main consideration. Does the actor look the part? It is the simplest question to deal with. The director deludes himself who yields to the temptation to believe that an affirmative answer settles the matter. An actor's looks will impress an audience initially, but after his first five minutes on stage it becomes aware of what he or she communicates (or fails to communicate) through acting!

- Harold Clurman

topic: Believe, Yield, Temptation

Mortality is, in reality, a very, very short period. It is literally a snap of the fingers compared to an eternity. It is so short that we can do it. We can prevail. Why, you can stand your foot in a vise for a while if you know it's going to be released soon. Yes, earthly probation is short compared to eternity, but so very much is riding on how we handle the trials and temptations of the flesh.

- Hartman Rector, Jr.

topic: Reality, Feet, Temptation, Probation, Trials And Temptations

There is a subtle danger that leads people away from religion, prevents them from submitting to God as their Lord, and ultimately, brings numerous other forms of trouble and distress upon them. This danger is ROMANTICISM, which leads people to live, not according to their reason, but according to their emotions; that is, according to their desires, hatreds, their susceptibility to temptations and their whims.

- Harun Yahya

topic: People, Hatred, Temptation, Susceptibility

In the quiet hours, in the heat of battle, and through the hazards of the day; in times of temptation, of sorrow, of peace and of blessing, let us pray always, both alone, and with our families gathered around us, with gratitude for the blessings of life, for understanding of its problems, and for strength to endure to the end.

- Heber J. Grant

topic: Gratitude, Blessing, Temptation

In times of temptation, of sorrow, of peace and of blessing, let us pray always, both alone and with our families.

- Heber J. Grant

topic: Blessing, Temptation, Sorrow

A woman flees from temptation, but a man just crawls away from it in the cheerful hope that it may overtake him.

- Helen Rowland

topic: Men, Temptation, Cheerful

What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.

- Henri Nouwen

topic: Love Life, People, Temptation

So many things beat upon us in a lifetime that simply enduring may seem almost beyond us… But the test a loving God has set before us is not to see if we can endure difficulty. It is to see if we can endure it well. We pass the test by showing that we remembered Him and the commandments He gave us. And to endure well is to keep those commandments whatever the opposition, whatever the temptation, and whatever the tumult around us.

- Henry B. Eyring

topic: Temptation, May, Tests

Satan's temptation may be summed up as appealing to man in this way: it made man desire to have what God had forbidden, to know what God had not revealed, and to be what God had not intended for him to be

- Henry Clarence Thiessen

source: Henry Clarence Thiessen (1979). “Lectures in Systematic Theology”, p.181, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

topic: Men, Temptation, Desire

Gaming is a vice the more dangerous as it is deceitful; and, contrary to every other species of luxury, flatters its votaries with the hopes of increasing their wealth; so that avarice itself is so far from securing us against its temptations that it often betrays the more thoughtless and giddy part of mankind into them.

- Henry Fielding

topic: Gambling, Luxury, Temptation, Giddy, Gaming

Some of God's noblest sons, I think, will be selected from those that know how to take wealth, with all its temptations, and maintain godliness therewith. It is hard to be a saint standing in a golden niche.

- Henry Ward Beecher

topic: Son, Thinking, Temptation, Selected

Find out what your temptations are, and you will find out largely what you are yourself.

- Henry Ward Beecher

topic: Temptation

There is no harder shield for the devil to pierce with temptation than singing with prayer.

- Henry Ward Beecher

topic: Prayer, Temptation, Singing

No place, no company, no age, no person is temptation-free; let no man boast that he was never tempted, let him not be high-minded, but fear, for he may be surprised in that very instant wherein he boasteth that he was never tempted at all.

- Herbert Spencer

topic: Men, Temptation, Age

Women have traditionally been either put on pedestals or damned as the source of all sexual temptation and sin. These are two sides of the same coin, since both place women in a nonhuman role. Playboy has opposed these warped sexual values and, in so doing, helped women step down from their pedestals and enjoy their natural sexuality as much as men.

- Hugh Hefner

source: Interview with Larry Dubois, iplayboy.com. January 1, 1974.

topic: Women, Two Sides, Temptation

It is a human inclination to hope things will work out, despite evidence or doubt to the contrary. A successful manager must resist this temptation.

- Hyman Rickover

source: "The Rickover Effect". Book by Theodore Rockwell, 1992.

topic: Successful, Work Out, Temptation, Things Will Work Out

I watched our friends' wary, intelligent faces droop at our tale. Their shock was a mere shadow of our own, resembling more the goodwilled imitation of that emotion, and for this reason it was a temptation to exaggerate, to throw a rope of superlatives across the abyss that divided experience from its representation by anecdote.

- Ian Mcewan

topic: Intelligent, Temptation, Shadow

How many of us would be able to overcome our desires and resist the temptation of sin? How many of us even lower our gaze when we look upon something that we are not supposed to? The real prisoner is the one whose heart has been kept away from remembering his Lord, and the real captive is the one who has been captivated by his whims and desires.

- Ibn Taymiyyah

topic: Real, Heart, Temptation

Avoiding the temptation to sin and being patient upon that, is greater than being patient whilst being afflicted with trials.

- Ibn Taymiyyah

topic: Temptation, Trials, Patient

Servitude, in many cases, is not forced upon by the masters, but a temptation of the servants.

- Indro Montanelli

topic: Temptation, Masters, Cases

I love the soul that dares tread the temptations of his years beneath his youthful feet.

- Isaac Watts

topic: Years, Feet, Temptation

I fear it is sometimes forgotten that God has married together justification and sanctification. They are distinct and different things, beyond question, but one is never found without the other. All justified people are sanctified, and all sanctified people are justified. ... Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you.

- J. C. Ryle

topic: People, Temptation, Together, Sanctification

Satan's primary temptation strategy is to try and make us forget what God has said about us and to evaluate our standing before God by some other criteria

- J. D. Greear

source: J. D. Greear (2011). “Gospel”, p.50, B&H Publishing Group

topic: Temptation, Trying, Satan

As far as R&B, I listen to a lot of old school like the Temptations and Chris Brown.

- Jacob Latimore

topic: School, Old School, Temptation

I never give in to the temptation to be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be too ridiculous.

- Jacques Derrida

topic: Giving, Temptation, Sake

When one's function is to teach the loftiest wisdom, it is difficult to resist the temptation to believe that until you have spoken, nothing has been said.

- Jacques Maritain

topic: Believe, Temptation, Said

No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it.

- James Allen

topic: Heart, Men, Temptation

It is ill changing the creed to meet each rising temptation. The soul is truer than it seems, and refuses to be trifled with.

- James Anthony Froude

topic: Temptation, Soul, Rising

There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.

- James Branch Cabell

source: James Branch Cabell (2013). “The Essential James Branch Cabell Collection”, eBookIt.com

topic: Memories, History, Temptation, Resisting Temptation, Temptation Life

Frequent and violent temptations were a proof that the citadel of the soul had not fallen and that the devil raged to make it fall.

- James Joyce

topic: Fall, Temptation, Soul, Citadels

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

source: James L Buckley (2010). “Freedom at Risk: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State”, p.90, Encounter Books

topic: Running, Temptation, Soul, Resisting

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

source: James L. Buckley (2010). “Freedom at Risk: Reflections on Politics, Liberty, and the State”, p.246, ReadHowYouWant.com

topic: Temptation, Important, Cases, Elected Officials

A total commitment to anxiously serve the Lord and others is the surest way to overcome temptations of the adversary.

- James M. Paramore

topic: Commitment, Temptation, Overcoming

Human character is never found "to enter into its glory," except through the ordeal of affliction. Its force cannot come forth without the offer of resistance, nor can the grandeur of its free will declare itself, except in the battle of fierce temptation.

- James Martineau

topic: Character, Temptation, Battle, Grandeur

Hasn't there ... been a little too much zeal in our reproof of children and friends for yielding to the temptations we ourselves find it most difficult to resist? We punish where we can least afford to sympathize. Of all the horrors of the daily news, it seems hardest to imagine the kind of cruelty that is intensified by the pain of its victims, but whenever we feel sympathy would weaken us, we are a little closer to the torturer.

- James Richardson

topic: Children, Pain, Temptation

Greater than the temptations of beauty are those of method.

- James Richardson

topic: Temptation, Method

One learns more metaphysics from a single temptation than from all the philosophers.

- James Russell Lowell

topic: Temptation, Philosopher, Metaphysics

The very word woman in the writings of the church fathers stood for the basest of temptations... As women were lowered in the moral scale because of their identification with her at the very bottom of the pit, so they cannot rise themselves save as they succeed in lifting her with whose sins they are weighed.

- Jane Addams

topic: Father, Writing, Temptation, Church Fathers

The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality, which some temptation may not overtop or undermine, and destroy.

- Jane Porter

topic: Temptation, Religion, May, Citadels

It has been wisely said, "that well may thy guardian angel suffer thee to lose thy locks, when thou darest wilfully to lay thy head in the lap of temptation!" Was it not easier for the hero of Judaea to avoid the touch of the fair Philistine, than to elude her power when held in her arms?

- Jane Porter

topic: Hero, Angel, Temptation

Women are not thousands of temptations to hell. They are thousands of reminders of the beauty of heaven.

- Jason Evert

topic: Heaven, Temptation, Hell

Saintliness is also a temptation.

- Jean Anouilh

topic: Temptation

Love cries victory when the tears of a woman become the sole defence of her virtue.

- Jean de La Fontaine

topic: Temptation, Victory, Tears

The command of a large sum is a dangerous temptation to a national administration. Though accumulated at their expense, the people rarely, if ever profit by it: yet in point of fact, all value, and consequently, all wealth, originates with the people.

- Jean-Baptiste Say

topic: People, Temptation, Administration

Love is the one thing stronger than desire and the only proper reason to resist temptation.

- Jeanette Winterson

topic: Love Is, Temptation, Desire

Temptations will no more prevail over a contented man, than a dart that is thrown against a brazen wall.

- Jeremiah Burroughs

topic: Wall, Men, Temptation, Brazen

We must pray constantly for His enabling grace to say no to temptation, of choosing to take all practical steps to avoid known areas of temptation and flee from those that surprise us.

- Jerry Bridges

topic: Temptation, Grace, Enabling

Temptation has been here ever since the Garden of Eden.

- Jerry Falwell

topic: Garden, Eden, Temptation, Garden Of Eden

Unwillingness to accept God's 'way of escape' from temptation frightens me - what a rebel yet resides within.

- Jim Elliot

topic: Temptation, Rebel, Way

These days the temptation to use ***** in sports has become too great for many young athletes.

- Jim Sensenbrenner

topic: Sports, Athlete, Temptation, Steroid, Young Athletes

Temptations are part of life, part of growing up. We grapple with them often - in some instances for our lifetime - before we come to realize that it is not so much the victory as it is the struggle that is holy.

- Joan D. Chittister

topic: Growing Up, Struggle, Temptation

Two ideas militate against our consciously contributing to a better world. The idea that we can do everything or the conclusion that we can do nothing to make this globe a better place to live are both temptations of the most insidious form. One leads to arrogance; the other to despair.

- Joan D. Chittister

topic: Ideas, Two, Temptation, Contributing

In my dreams I gorge on chocolates, I roll in chocolates, and their texture is not brittle but soft as flesh, like a thousand mouths on my body, devouring me in fluttering small bites. To die beneath their tender gluttony seems the culmination of every temptation I have ever known.

- Joanne Harris

source: Joanne Harris (2000). “Chocolat”, p.188, Penguin

topic: Dream, Temptation, Chocolate, Gorges

The temptation to add features to a program must be resisted as strongly as possible. This requires the dedication of a saint

- Joe Armstrong

topic: Dedication, Temptation, Saint

No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

- John Bunyan

source: John Bunyan, George Barrell Cheever (1850). “The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to Come,: Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream. Wherein is Discovered the Manner of His Setting Out, His Dangerous Journey, and Safe Arrival at the Desired Country”, p.89

topic: Christian, Men, Temptation, Trials And Temptations, True Understanding

Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that reared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them.

- John Bunyan

topic: Prayer, Temptation, Nests, Samson, Trials And Temptations

What the members of the Church need, more than anything else, are strong testimonies of Jesus Christ and the gospel He restored. They need to know. And they need to know that they know. This is the best protection against the tsunami of temptations and the waves of immorality that crash against us. Perhaps this is just another reason why the first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

- John Bytheway

topic: Jesus, Strong, Temptation

God has defeated Satan through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through this overwhelming victory, God has also empowered you to overcome any temptation to sin and has provided sufficient resources for you to respond biblically to any problem of life. By relying on God's power and being obedient to His Word, you can be an overcomer in any situation.

- John C. Broger

topic: Jesus, Temptation, Victory, Lord Jesus Christ, Relying On God

Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations.

- John Ciardi

topic: Honesty, Temptation, Ability

The besetting evil of our age is the temptation to squander and dilute thought on a thousand different lines of inquiry.

- John Herschel

topic: Evil, Temptation, Age

At GQ, there was never a temptation to pander or preach to the choir because I had no concept of who the reader was or what that reader might want.

- John Jeremiah Sullivan

topic: Temptation, Want, Might

He who tempts, though in vain, at last asperses The tempted with dishonor foul, supposed Not incorruptible of faith, not proof Against temptation.

- John Milton

topic: Temptation, Lasts, Corruption

Virtue, which breaks through opposition and all temptation can remove, most shines, and most is acceptable above.

- John Milton

topic: Shining, Temptation, Virtue

I endeavored to renounce society, that I might avoid temptation. But it was a poor religion; so far as it prevailed, only tended to make me gloomy, stupid, unsociable, and useless.

- John Newton

topic: Stupid, Temptation, Useless

If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation.

- John Owen

source: John Owen, Rev Terry Kulakowski, Editor “Overcoming Temptation and Sin”, Lulu.com

topic: Prayer, Temptation

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

topic: Thinking, Giving, Temptation, Cosmology

There is such seduction in a library of good books that I cannot resist the temptation to luxuriate in reading.

- John Quincy Adams

source: John Quincy Adams (1969). “The diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794-1845: American diplomacy, and political, social, and intellectual life, from Washington to Polk”

topic: Book, Reading, Temptation

Every temptation is an opportunity of our getting nearer to God.

- John Quincy Adams

topic: Opportunity, Temptation