Tempted Quotes

• Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Country, Kindness, Promise

  52 Copy quote

• Halfway through any work, one is often tempted to go off on a tangent. Once you have yielded, you will be tempted to yield again and again... Finally, you would only produce something hybrid.

  Barbara Hepworth

  Yield, Hybridity, Produce

  18 Copy quote

• Mock the devil, and he will flee from thee.

  Edward de Bono

  Bible, Submission To God, Temptation

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• 'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

  William Shakespeare

  Fall, Temptation, One Thing

  William Shakespeare (2014). “The Arden Dictionary Of Shakespeare Quotations”, p.280, A&C Black

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• All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Motivational, Men, Broken

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Temptation, Gains

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.298, Library of America

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• The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Successful, Temptation, Dangerous

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook F 120, 1799.

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• We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Temptation, Who We Are, Shows

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• 'Tis no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome.

  William Penn

  Temptation, Overcoming, Sin

  William Penn (1726). “A Collection of the Works of William Penn: To which is Prefixed a Journal of His Life, with Many Original Letters and Papers Not Before Published”, p.839

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• Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory.

  Frederick William Faber

  Temptation, Victory, Resistance

  36 Copy quote

• A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.

  C. S. Lewis

  Motivational, Strong, Lying

  86 Copy quote

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

  F. H. Bradley

  Struggle, Blow, Yield

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, No. 75, 1930.

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• 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.

  Francois Fenelon

  Mother, Children, Temptation

  Francois Fenelon (2014). “Spiritual Progress”, p.51, Lulu.com

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• In my relations with my father, which are difficult and where I'm often met by coolness and indifference, I am constantly tempted to be cold and indifferent. Yet I know that this is a test if I could take it rightly.

  Evelyn Underhill

  Father, Tests, Cold

  Evelyn Underhill (2011). “Fragments from an Inner Life: The Notebooks of Evelyn Underhill”, p.94, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• The historian of science may be tempted to exclaim that when paradigms change, the world itself changes with them.

  Thomas Kuhn

  Science, World, May

  Thomas S. Kuhn (2012). “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.111, University of Chicago Press

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• Who knows whether in retirement I shall be tempted to the last infirmity of mundane minds, which is to write a book.

  Geoffrey Fisher

  Retirement, Book, Writing

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• We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century... During this period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries but necessities - not the salt in our bread but the bread itself.

  Jimmy Carter

  Patriotic, Commitment, Past

  Jimmy Carter's Farewell Address, www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov. January 14, 1981.

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• The whole of science, and one is tempted to think the whole of the life of any thinking man, is trying to come to terms with the relationship between yourself and the natural world. Why are you here, and how do you fit in, and what's it all about.

  David Attenborough

  Men, Thinking, Trying

  25 Copy quote

• The poor must be wisely visited and liberally cared for, so that mendicity shall not be tempted into mendacity, nor want exasperated into crime.

  Robert Charles Winthrop

  Caring, Temptation, Want

  Robert Charles Winthrop (1886). “Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions: 1878-1886”

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• But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.

  Thucydides

  Differences, Hardship, Pleasure

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.114, Simon and Schuster

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• When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'

  Sydney J. Harris

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  Sydney J. Harris (1953). “Strictly personal”

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• It is easier to stay out than get out.

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, Achievement, Smoking

  Following the Equator ch. 18, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

  Mae West

  Motivational, Tattoo, Sexy

  My Little Chickadee (motion picture) (1940) See Balzac 1; Clementina Graham 1; Wilde 25; Wilde 53

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• It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible Gods and Goddesses. To remember that the dullest, and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.

  C. S. Lewis

  One Day, Would Be, Serious Things

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.197, Simon and Schuster

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• Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast.

  Philip Neri

  Successful, Grieving, Opposites

  160 Copy quote