“Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.”
“’Honey, I’m Good’ is a song about temptation, and we wanted to show what is possible if you can beat it.”
“Everyone deals with temptation. It’s just there.”
“I think anyone in a relationship has to deal with temptation if they’re being honest with themselves. People don’t talk about it very much, but it’s very honest. Guys and girls both have temptation.”
“It is a temptation for me to wear all my rings at once.”
“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.”
“I do not have a merchandise line. I don’t sell knives or apparel. Though I have been approached to endorse various products from liquor to airlines to automobiles to pharmaceuticals dozens of times, I have managed to resist the temptation.”
“You oughtn’t to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd.”
“The temptation in any approaching crisis or conflict is, because people haven’t got a clue what lies ahead, they’re always searching into the past for some sort of pattern … to galvanise the nation or their supporters and put themselves on a pedestal to sound Churchillian or Rooseveltian.”
“Some are wrong because they are not strong enough to fight temptation and some some are wrong because they do not know.”
“Temptation to behave is terrible.”
“Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.”
“Many of the greatest Cuban boxing champions since the revolution triumphed on the island resisted the temptation to leave Cuba and, in some cases, defied any suggestion they were tempted in the first place. Most famously, Teofilo Stevenson rejected multi-million dollar offers to leave his island to fight Muhammad Ali.”
“There is always a temptation for governments: see a problem and announce a quick fix.”
“We need a liberal agenda in which government resists the temptation to interfere in the lives of individuals but is equally determined to play an active role where creative action can advance the liberties of all.”
“I’m here today to warn you: I want you to watch out for the adversary. Guard yourself from any spirit of entitlement. Restrain any and all subtle temptation to gain attention or to find ways to promote yourself.”
“One of the important things about temptation is, if I’m going to deal with it I’m going to have to recognize, this is an area of weakness in my life. I have been tempted here before and before and before.”
“Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centred and even solipsistic.”
“So long as nuclear weapons continue to exist, so will the temptation to threaten others with overwhelming military force.”
“The experiments show quite clearly that, as you resist more and more temptation, you’re actually more and more likely to fail.”
“When you’re young, the temptation is maybe to think, ‘More is more.’ But a lot of the time less is more.”
“There’s an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing.”
“I have been exposed to a great amount of temptation throughout the course of my career.”
“My whole life, I’ve been a Temptation.”
“We have a portion of our show where we ask everybody to get up and do the Temptation Walk. People 8 to 80 know how to do that Temptation Walk.”
“I’m not an original member, though I’m sort of an original member. I’ve been on a lot of records and took them to great heights. For them to make me the sixth Temptation is quite an honor.”
“Never assume, no matter how strong the temptation, that other people are low-life lying manipulators without a shred of human decency.”
“Why resist temptation? There will always be more.”
“We all have the temptation to be backseat drivers when it comes to decisions that don’t work out the way we want.”
“Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes.”
“Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty.”
“There is a recurring temptation for any nation, and for any writer who operates within its field of force, to make an ornament of the past: to turn the losses to victories and to restate humiliations as triumphs.”
“The Puritans left behind so full a record of what they thought and did that scholars cannot resist the temptation to make the most of it.”
“There’s a rising tide of concern among activists, economists, and artists about Africa. Theres a temptation to think of it as a monolith as opposed to all these different countries with different problems.”
“Knowledge of God’s Word is a bulwark against deception, temptation, accusation, even persecution.”
“This bizarre industry presents so many paths of temptation. If you don’t have some kind of foundation, typically from family, then it will be difficult to deal with.”
“For me, temptation is life and I have a gargantuan appetite for everything.”
“Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values – and witnesses.”
“What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don’t want to discourage it completely.”
“Temptation coaxes us toward sin, and sin leads to sickness and death, and ultimately confinement in the realm of the evil one.”
“Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory.”
“Secrecy sets barriers between men, but at the same time offers the seductive temptation to break through the barriers by gossip or confession.”
“Virtue is insufficient temptation.”
“I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.”
“Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We must resist the temptation of once again turning America into the traditional bogeyman of the left.”
“We cannot get by Auschwitz. We should not even try, as great as the temptation is, because Auschwitz belongs to us, is branded into our history, and – to our benefit! – has made possible an insight that could be summarized as, ‘Now we finally know ourselves.’”
“Temptation is a woman’s weapon and man’s excuse.”
“Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.”
“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.”
“The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.”
“I want to be very careful about judging and how much to generalize about the use of media being pathological. For some people, it’s a temptation and a pathology; for others, it’s a lifeline.”
“I am lucky, I don’t have aches and pains. I do Pilates regularly, which is a series of stretching exercises, and I recommend it to anyone of my age because the temptation is not to exercise when you get older. Well, you should.”
“Early on in the writing process, there is sometimes this temptation to write around the central drama instead of just aiming for the bull’s-eye. The bullseye is harder to hit, of course, but it’s so much more satisfying when you do.”
“We may not have demon fathers dangling offers of infernal power before us, but everyone understands what it means to struggle with temptation or resist the urge to give in to our baser natures.”
“I never give in to the temptation to be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be too ridiculous.”
“Resist the temptation to subject yourself only to that which re-affirms what you already think.”
“The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.”
“No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it.”
“There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.”
“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.”
“The people ask much, often more than any government can give. We must resist the temptation to promise solutions to all problems.”
“We need to resist the temptation to create more entitlements and more entitlements, which is one of the reasons we are heading recklessly toward fiscal crisis.”
“Temptation has been here ever since the Garden of Eden.”
“These days the temptation to use steroids in sports has become too great for many young athletes.”
“If the rules of a language are followed, words usually make sense. But these very rules can stir the impulse to rebel. We’re obliged to keep trying to convey meaning through correct sentences. After a while, the good-soldier rigidity of polished prose can begin to seem dull, and it gets harder to resist the temptation of nonsense.”
“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.”
“I retired because I had to, not because I wanted to. The temptation to get back in the ring is very much there.”
“All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.”
“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.”
“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.”
“There has always been discouragement, negativism, and temptation in the world because of Lucifer.”
“My parents taught me to react quickly when temptation comes and to say ‘No!’ instantly and emphatically. I recommend that same counsel to you. Avoid temptations.”
“For any filmmaker who has just released a film and who is experiencing some measure of success, the temptation can be great to respond to every screening request that comes in.”
“That’s what I loved about Temptation Island. I don’t even know why they did it.”
“Years ago – I used to be an actor – I was in a production of Vaclav Havel’s ‘Temptation,’ and when we started rehearsals, he was in prison. When we closed the show, he was running for president. And it felt incredibly timely and important and also this lucky thing.”
“No one is above temptation. No one is above life in general.”
“It is a big temptation to me, when I create a character for a novel, to say that he is what he is because of faulty wiring, or because of microscopic amounts of chemicals which he ate or failed to eat on that particular day.”
“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.”
“All actors know that the real adrenaline rush is in doing theatre. There is an immediate connect, and a role in a play, for an actor, is the biggest temptation.”
“Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.”
“Every life is march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.”
“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”
“Governments enjoying surpluses have a very strong temptation to splash money around, and while tax cuts are always appealing, cutting taxes at the top of a boom runs the real risk of creating a structural deficit when the boom subsides.”
“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.”
“Happy couples resist the temptation to go to bed at different times. They go to bed at the same time, even if one partner wakes up later to do things while their partner sleeps.”
“You need to gain the confidence that you’re doing enough on film. You must resist the temptation to do too much.”
“There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.”
“The danger for any artist whose work is both recognizable and critically acclaimed is complacent repetition – the temptation to churn out easily identifiable, eagerly welcomed, and readily salable designs.”
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
“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.”
“Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in gay, fine colours, that are but skin-deep.”
“Virtue is a positive quality developed by taking a firm stand for the right in temptation, or by the suffering endured in consequence of wrongdoing.”
“Remove all the junk from one’s house. Then one doesn’t have to deal with the temptation. If you get hungry enough, you will eat that apple.”
“Imagination is a screen onto which the evil spirits can ‘project’ images, temptations presented as stimulating entertainments, offering us pleasurable rewards if we give in to the 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.”
“Those who operate through the Holy Spirit are more equipped to resist temptation.”
“Believe it or not, when you fast in the Spirit, God makes you more equipped to deal with hunger, irritability, and temptation.”
“Every time I say ‘no’ to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say ‘no’ to a greater one.”
“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.”
“There is a famous musician, Peter Gabriel, who has used my voice in the movie, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’ He used my song in the background.”
“I can resist everything except temptation.”
“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation.”
“Neither liberal nor conservative politicians can resist the temptation to stand as mighty sequoias of rectitude amid the lowly underbrush of fundraising.”
“A priest encounters temptation every day, and some of that desire is very natural.”
“There is a temptation for an actor to editorialize what they’re doing. And you can’t do that with Pinter. It’s almost like a musical score. His lines are so specific, but they can mean different things to different people, like an alternating current.”
“There is always a temptation to take things for granted, to get lazy, and to presume that the reader knows more than they do.”
“Success comes with a baggage. When you are successful, there is a lot of temptation to not foray outside of your boundaries and just stick to what is successful. It is very tempting because it is very easy to do.”
“We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.”
“A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.”
“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.”
“Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.”
“Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?”
“The temptation to quit and start over infects every creative process I’ve ever been in. Frustration and boredom always fuel this self-doubt.”
“Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.”
“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.”
“By and large the United States has been able to resist the temptation to close its doors to the world.”
“Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we’ll find it.”
“I always wanted to be a main eventer in pro wrestling. I lived my dream, but the excess of the ’80s and the huge money of the ’90s became a great temptation for many of us.”
“I think temptation is ever present to become something that you think is more socially acceptable.”
“No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.”
“We’re all going to be victims of temptation at several points in our lives.”
“My experiment in money exchange was the temptation to set up a bank. The absence of any Islamic banking was also another factor in establishing Al-Rajhi Bank, which is now the world’s biggest Islamic lender by market value.”
“The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
“I resist the temptation to curate my apartment.”
“We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.”
“The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.”
“The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.”
“Not only did we read a lot at home, we also watched a lot of films. So I had already seen a lot of films that were about the crucifixion and the temptation of Christ, like Bible history and the Ten Commandments – stuff like that.”
“A lot of times, I’ll resist the temptation to visually define a movie until, one, I really understand just what the movie’s about, and two, until I start talking to my cinematographer.”
“As for writing about temptation, there’s no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama.”
“Temptation is impossible for me to resist… Come on. This is Hollywood. It’s in the job description.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.”
“Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.”
“The most important thing is that we are on the right path, and we will not deviate from it, even in the face of strong temptation to choose temporary gains over long-term benefits.”
Leave a Reply