Temptation

Why comes temptation but for man to meetAnd so be pedestaled in triumph?

— Temptation

I may not here omit those two main plagues, and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people: they go commonly together.

— Temptation

Our founders were insightful students of human nature. They feared the abuse of power because they understood that every human being has not only "better angels" in his nature, but also an innate vulnerability to temptation — especially the temptation to abuse power over others.

— Temptation

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

— Temptation

Bell, book and candle shall not drive me back,When gold and silver becks me to come on.

— Temptation

How oft the sight of means to do ill deedsMakes ill deeds done!

— Temptation

Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.

— Temptation

I am that way going to temptation,Where prayers cross.

— Temptation

To beguile many and be beguil'd by one.

— Temptation

Know'st thou not any whom corrupting goldWould tempt unto a close exploit of death?

— Temptation

Sometimes we are devils to ourselves,Presuming on their changeful potency.

— Temptation

With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly....Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.

— Temptation

I can resist everything except temptation.

— Temptation

What's done we partly may compute,But know not what's resisted.

— Temptation

So you tell yourself you are pretty fine clay Wait till you want to want to!

— Temptation

The devil tempts us not—'tis we tempt him,Reckoning his skill with opportunity.

— Temptation

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

— Temptation

Temptations hurt not, though they have accesse;Satan o'ercomes none but by willingnesse.

— Temptation

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life.

— Temptation

Honest bread is very well—it's the butter that makes the temptation.

— Temptation

Get thee behind me, Satan.

— 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.

— Temptation

Could'st thou boast, O child of weakness! In thy path of life?

— Temptation

When you have overcome one temptation, you must he ready to enter the lists with another. As distrust, in some sense, is the mother of safety, so security is the gate of danger. A man had need to fear this most of all, that he fears not at all.

— Temptation

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

— Temptation

On this earth all is temptation. Crosses tempt us by irritating our pride, and prosperity by flattering it. Our life is a continual combat, but one in which Jesus Christ fights for us. We must pass on unmoved, while temptations rage around us, as the traveler, overtaken by a storm, simply wraps his cloak more closely about him, and pushes on more vigorously toward his destined home.

— Temptation

The realization of God's presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation.

— Temptation

When tempted, the shortest and surest way is to act like a little child at the breast; when we show it a frightful monster, it shrinks back and buries its face in its mother's bosom, that it may no longer behold it.

— Temptation

Christian! thou knowest thou earriest gunpowder about thee. Desire them that carry fire to keep at a distance. It is a dangerous crisis, when a proud heart meets with flattering lips.

— Temptation

In the hour of my distress,Sweet Spirit, comfort me.

— Temptation

We often wonder that certain men and women are left by God to the commission of sins that shock us. We wonder how, under the temptation of a single hour, they fall from the very heights of virtue and of honor into sin and shame. The fact is that there are no such falls as these, or there are next to none. These men and women are those who have dallied with temptation — have exposed themselves to the influence of it, and have been weakened and corrupted by it.

— Temptation

Occasions of adversity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. For occasions do not make a man frail, but they show what he is.

— Temptation