Lure Quotes

• It is not the great temptations that ruin us; it is the little ones.

  John William De Forest

  Inspirational, Failure, Temptation

  John William De Forest (1859). “Seacliff; Or, The Mystery of the Westervelts”, p.41

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.

  John Burroughs

  Inspirational, Humor, Opportunity

  John Burroughs (1908). “The Writings of John Burroughs: Leaf & tendrill”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• With no mind, flowers lure the butterfly; With no mind, the butterfly visits the blossoms. Yet when flowers bloom, the butterfly comes; When the butterfly comes, the flowers bloom.

  Ryokan Taigu

  Buddhist, Flower, Butterfly

  12 Copy quote

• All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are to lure him; feign disorder and strike him. When he concentrates, prepare against him; where he is strong, avoid him. Anger his general and confuse him. Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.

  Sun Tzu

  Strong, Arrogance, Deception

  126 Copy quote

• The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mind wants the world to return its love, or its awareness... The mind's sidekick, however, will settle for two eggs over easy. The dear, stupid body is easily satisfied as a spaniel. And, incredibly, the simple spaniel can lure the brawling mind to its dish. It is everlastingly funny that the proud, metaphysically ambitious mind will hush if you give it an egg.

  Annie Dillard

  Stupid, Simple, Eggs

  8 Copy quote

• I find the lure of the unknown irresistible.

  Sylvia Earle

  Irresistible

  Twitter post from Sep 4, 2017

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• My God, Sweetness beyond words, make bitter all the carnal comfort that draws me from love of the eternal and lures me to its evil self by the sight of some delightful good in the present. Let it not overcome me, my God. Let not flesh and blood conquer me. Let not the world and its brief glory deceive me, nor the devil trip me by his craftiness. Give me courage to resist, patience to endure, and constancy to persevere. Give me the soothing unction of Your spirit rather than all the consolations of the world, and in place of carnal love, infuse into me the love of Your name.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Love, Sight, Self

  Thomas (à Kempis), Thomas A. Kempis, Aloysius Croft, Harold Bolton (2003). “The Imitation of Christ”, p.74, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Time stoops to no man's lure.

  Algernon Charles Swinburne

  Men, Stoops

  Algernon Charles Swinburne (1866). “Laus Veneris, and other poems and ballads. [Orig. publ. as Poems and ballads]. Author's ed”, p.192

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lure of flying is the lure of beauty.

  Amelia Earhart

  Flying, Aviation, Flight

  Amelia Earhart (2009). “Last Flight”, p.32, Crown

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take, and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.

  Sun Tzu

  War, Moving, Creating

  10 Copy quote

• Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.

  W. Eugene Smith

  Photography, Voice, Groups

  W. Eugene Smith (1981). “W. Eugene Smith, master of the photographic essay”

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• The moving finger writes; and having writ, moves on.

  Omar Khayyam

  Moving, Writing, Breaking Silence

  Omar Khayyam, Edward FitzGerald, Christopher Decker (1997). “Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: A Critical Edition”, p.194, University of Virginia Press

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• For many years Hollywood held this double lure for me, tremendous sums of money for work that required no more effort than a game of pinochle.

  Ben Hecht

  Years, Games, Effort

  Ben Hecht (1954). “A child of the century”, Signet

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Beauty Lures the Stranger More Easily into Danger -Septimus Heap

  Angie Sage

  Stranger, Danger

  10 Copy quote

• In the high mountains and desert beings can affect you. Most aren't malicious, but some will lure you to your death.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Mountain, Desert

  7 Copy quote

• Steel itself oft lures a man to fight.

  Homer

  Fighting, Men, Steel

  Homer, William Shakespeare (2015). “Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems”, p.67, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• With emptie hands men may no haukes lure.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Men, Hands, May

  Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wife Of Bath's Tale”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Color in painting lures the eyes as verses do in poetry.

  Nicolas Poussin

  Eye, Color, Painting

  8 Copy quote

• My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, and till she stoop she must not be full-gorged, for then she never looks upon her lure.

  William Shakespeare

  Looks, Taming Of The Shrew, Empty

  William Shakespeare, Harold James Oliver (1999). “The Taming of the Shrew”, p.186, Oxford University Press, USA

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• The future is always present, as a promise, a lure and a temptation.

  Karl Popper

  Temptation, Promise

  8 Copy quote

• All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him.

  Sun Tzu

  War, Deception, Enemy

  44 Copy quote

• The butterfly lures us not only because he is beautiful, but because he is transitory. The caterpillar is uglier, but in him we can regard the better joy of becoming.

  Cynthia Ozick

  Beautiful, Butterfly, Joy

  Cynthia Ozick (1991). “The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories”, E P Dutton

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• What you win a guy with is what you keep him with. If you win him with your body than you'll have to try and keep him with your body. The problem is that every girl in the world has a body, so any girl in the world can lure him away. But who YOU are as a woman... No other woman in the world has that.

  Jason Evert

  Girl, Winning, Guy

  38 Copy quote

• To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.

  George Orwell

  Art, Latin, Struggle

  23 Copy quote

• Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Wise, Hope, Promise

  5 Copy quote