Temptation - Quotes

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

Do you really think ... that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not – there is no weakness in that. - Oscar Wilde

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

Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory. - Frederick W. Faber

Every temptation is an opportunity to triumph over evil. - Marc Williams

For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation. - William Penn

For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Good habits result from resisting temptation. - Ancient Proverb

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

Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep. - Matthew Henry

No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes. - Henry Ward Beecher

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

Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values and witnesses. -Franklin P. Jones

Saintliness is also a temptation. - Jean Anouilh

Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. - Charles H. Spurgeon

Temptation cannot exist without the concurrence of inclination and opportunity. - E. H. Chapin

Temptation is the feeling we get when encountered by an opportunity to do what we innately know we shouldn't. - Steve Maraboli

Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart. - William Shakespeare

Temptation likes best those who think they have a natural immunity, for it may laugh all the harder when they succumb. - Catherynne M. Valente

Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure hours that men are made or marred. - W. M. Taylor

Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open. - Unknown

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

Temptations are as thick as the leaves of the forest, and no one can be out of the reach of temptation unless he is dead. The great thing is to make people intelligent enough and strong enough, not to keep away from temptation, but to resist it. - Robert G. Ingersoll

Temptations are enemies outside the castle seeking entrance. If there be no false retainer within who holds treacherous parley, there can scarcely be even an offer. - Henry Ward Beecher

Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you second chances. - Orlando A. Battista

The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once. - Francis H. Bradley

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

The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations. - John Wycliffe

The most formidable attribute of temptation is its increasing power, its accelerating ratio of velocity. Every act of repetition increases power, diminishes resistance. It is like the letting out of waters – where a drop can go, a river can go. Whoever yields to temptation, subjects himself to the law of falling bodies. - Horace Mann

To go into temptation to find how strong you are, is as wise as to go before a mirror, with closed eyes, to find how you look when asleep. - Ivan Panin

We find many things, to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation. - William Hazlitt

We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are. - Thomas Kempis

When temptation knocks, imagination usually answers. - Dan Bennett

Without temptation the soul cannot grow. - James Allen