Authors:
  • To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, 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, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited.

    "The Memoirs of Catherine the Great". Book translated by Markus Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom, 2005.