Temptation Quotes - Page 31

• If Christ justifies you, He will sanctify you! He will not save you and leave you in your sins.

  Robert Murray M'Cheyne

  Sin, Christ, Justify

  Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar (1866). “The life and remains, letters, lectures, and poems of [the Rev] Robert Murray McCheyne”, p.213

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• Self-absorption is always a temptation to young people, and if their religion is of a sort to add to this self-absorption, I feel that it is a serious mistake. If I had my way, the whole subject of feelings and emotions in the religious life would be absolutely ignored. Feelings there will be, doubtless, but they must not be in the least depended on, nor in any sense taken as the test or gauge of one's religion. They ought to be left out of the calculation entirely. You may feel good or you may feel bad, but neither the good feeling nor the bad feeling affects the real thing.

  Hannah Whitall Smith

  Religious, Real, Mistake

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• The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights.

  Oswald Chambers

  Christian, Giving Up, Rights

  Oswald Chambers (2016). “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, p.25, Gideon House Books

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• I humbly believe our life is to learn our nothingness and His being everything; when we agree with Him that we are nothing and not astonished at our evil nature breaking forth, when we are willing for the last to be first, when we are willing to be the least in Heaven that every one we know should be higher than ourselves, then, I think, our lesson is learnt. If we are annoyed at any disparaging remark or conduct of our fellows, it is because we are not yet fully aware of our being nothing.

  Charles George Gordon

  Believe, Thinking, Evil

  Charles George Gordon (1888). “Letters of General C.G. Gordon to His Sister, M.A. Gordon”, London ; New York : Macmillan

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• 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

  People, Together, Different

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• I am, as ever, a poor sinner, a captive of eternal love, running by the side of His triumphal chariot, and I have no desire to be anything else as long as I live.

  Nicolaus Zinzendorf

  Running, Long, Desire

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• To undertake the direction of the economic life of people with widely divergent ideals and values is to assume responsibilities which commit one to the use of force; it is to assume a position where the best intentions cannot prevent one from being forced to act in a way which to some of those affected must appear highly immoral. This is true even if we assume the dominant power to be as idealistic and unselfish as we can possibly conceive. But how small is the likelihood that it will be unselfish, and how great are the temptations!

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Responsibility, People, Use

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

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• 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

  Powerful, Littles, Able

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• 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

  Struggle, Virtue, Reason

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• The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of deep religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone's freedom is at risk.

  Edward Kennedy

  Religious, Men, Order

  "Kennedy Tells Falwell Group Of Tolerance" by Phil Gailey, www.nytimes.com. October 4, 1983.

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• It is a constant battle to resist the temptation to have more luxuries, to acquire more stuff, and to live more comfortably.

  David Platt

  Luxury, Battle, Stuff

  David Platt (2010). “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream”, p.130, Multnomah

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• The Constitutional Convention debated whether America should even have a standing army. ... They worried that a powerful military could rival civilian government for power in our new country, and of course they worried that having a standing army around would create too much of a temptation to use it.

  Rachel Maddow

  Country, Powerful, Military

  Rachel Maddow (2012). “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power”, p.8, Broadway Books

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• the most dangerous temptations are not due to the active, sudden flames of desire, 'the lusts of the flesh,' but to the disinclinations of the flesh, its indolence and sluggishness, our tendency to become creatures of habit.

  Sigrid Undset

  Flames, Lust, Desire

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• 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

  Growing Up, Struggle, Victory

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• 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

  Ideas, Two, Arrogance

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• Gossip is always a personal confession either of malice or imbecility, and the young should not only shun it, but by the most thorough culture relieve themselves from all temptation to indulge in it. It is a low, frivolous, and too often a dirty business. There are country neighborhoods in which it rages like a pest. Churches are split in pieces by it. Neighbors are made enemies by it for life. In many persons it degenerates into a chronic disease, which is practically incurable. Let the young cure it while they may.

  J. G. Holland

  Country, Dirty, Indulge In

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• 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

  Successful, Work Out, Doubt

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

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

  Hannah

  People, Evil, Quality

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• 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

  People, Administration, Facts

  Jean Baptiste Say, Charles Robert Prinsep (1857). “A Treatise on Political Economy; Or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth”, p.487

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• Temptation out of reach does you no good.

  Craig Johnson

  Doe

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

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• For most of us, the classic test of willpower is resisting temptation, whether the temptress is a doughnut, a cigarette, a clearance sale, or a one-night stand. When people say, "I have no willpower," what they usually mean is, "I have trouble saying no when my mouth, stomach, heart, or (fill in your anatomical part) wants to say yes.

  Kelly McGonigal

  Heart, Mean, Night

  Kelly McGonigal (2011). “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It”, p.14, Penguin

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• The temptation to use mathematics is irresistible for economists. It appears to convey the appropriate air of scientific authority and precision to economists' musings.

  Paul Ormerod

  Air, Use, Mathematics

  "The Death of Economics". Book by Paul Ormerod, 1994.

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• For a decade Americans have been steeped in the rhetoric of "zero tolerance" and the faith that virtually all problems from drug addiction to lousy teaching can be solved by pouring on the punishment. Even without a Commander in Chief who pledges to rid the world of evildoers, smoke them out of their holes and the like, we would be vulnerable to the temptation to brush aside frustrating complexities and relieve intolerable fear (at least for the moment) by settling on one or more scapegoats to crush. To imagine that trauma casts out fantasy is a dangerous mistake.

  Ellen Willis

  Crush, Zero, Mistake

  "Dreaming of War". "The Nation", October 15, 2001.

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• We must now surrender to the obligation to understand and to care. We must surrender ourselves to becoming conscious, thinking members of the human race. We must put down the temptation to powerlessness and surrender to the questions of the moment.

  Joan D. Chittister

  Knowledge, Thinking, Race

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• Whoever has the power to label others as evil is automatically, or reflexively, the good person. Good people label bad people as evil. And once you do that, then it demonizes them. You don't negotiate with evil. You don't sit down at the table with the devil and say, "Okay, let's work this out." What you want to do is destroy evil. Every Catholic kid every night says, or should say, "Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil." And so you've got to go to God to help you deal with evil rather than your State Department or your negotiators.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Kids, Night, People

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