Temptation Quotes - Page 19

• The temptation shared by all forms of intelligence: cynicism.

  Albert Camus

  Intelligence, Cynicism, Form

  Albert Camus (1963). “Carnets: 1935-1942”

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• As to the permanent interest of individuals in the aggregated interests of the community, and in the proverbial maxim, that honesty is the best policy, present temptation is often found to be an overmatch for those considerations.

  James Madison

  Honesty, Community, Individual

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• There is a lot of difference between tempting and leading into error. God tempts but does not lead into error. To tempt is to provide opportunities for us to do certain things if we do not love God, but putting us under no necessity to do so. To lead into error is to compel a man necessarily to conclude and follow a falsehood.

  Blaise Pascal

  Opportunity, Men, Errors

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• The protection of a ten-year-old girl from her father's advances is a necessary condition of social order, but the protection of the father from temptation is a necessary condition of his continued social adjustment. The protections that are built up in the child against desire for the parent become the essential counterpart to the attitudes in the parent that protect the child.

  Margaret Mead

  Girl, Children, Attitude

  Margaret Mead (1975). “Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world”, William Morrow & Co

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• Life is so messy that the temptation to straighten it up is very strong. And the results always illusory.

  Anna Quindlen

  Life, Strong, Results

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• Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions--tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?... If nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece--must the whole web be rent in drawing them out?

  Laurence Sterne

  Kindness, Passion, Heart

  Laurence Sterne (1849). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself”, p.339

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• I know as well as any one, [the devil] is an adversary, whom if we resist, he will fly from us--but I seldom resist him at all; from a terror, that though I may conquer, I may still get a hurt in the combat--soinstead of thinking to make him fly, I generally fly myself.

  Laurence Sterne

  Hurt, Thinking, Devil

  Laurence Sterne (1823). ““The” Novels Of Sterne, Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, Mackenzie, Horace Walpole, And Clara Reeve: 5”, p.251

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• Technology is not in itself opposed to spirituality and to religion. But it presents a great temptation.

  Thomas Merton

  Technology, Spirituality

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.18, Image

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• Though a censure lies against those who are poor and proud, yet is Pride sooner to be forgiven in a poor person than in a rich one; since in the latter it is insult and arrogance; in the former, it may be a defense against temptations to dishonesty; and, if manifested on proper occasions, may indicate a natural bravery of mind, which the frowns of fortune cannot depress.

  Samuel Richardson

  Depressing, Lying, Pride

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• We can all be good when we have no temptation or provocation to the contrary.

  Samuel Richardson

  Goodness, Be Good, Contrary

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• The film The Last Temptation of Christ, no matter what its defenders say, was a slap in the face to Christians everywhere.

  Mickey Rooney

  Christian, Religious, Matter

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• Preschoolers sound much brighter and more knowledgeable than they really are, which is why so many parents and grandparents are sosure their progeny are gifted and super-bright. Because children's questions sound so mature and sophisticated, we are tempted to answer them at a level of abstraction far beyond the child's level of comprehension. That is a temptation we should resist.

  David Elkind

  Children, Grandparent, Sound

  David Elkind (1999). “La educacion erronea. Ninos preescolares en peligro”, Fondo De Cultura Economica USA

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• I resist the temptation to curate my apartment.

  Thelma Golden

  Apartment

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• Heed not Mephistopheles, my children, lest you suffer eternal damnation. When he whispers in your ear, turn away your head and hearken instead to the angel on your shoulder.

  Harry Segall

  Children, Angel, Suffering

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• The aim of education is to fit children for the position in life which they are hereafter to occupy. Boys are to be sent out intothe world to buffet with its temptations, to mingle with bad and good, to govern and direct.... girls are to dwell in quiet homes, amongst a few friends; to exercise a noiseless influence, to be submissive and retiring. There is no connection between the bustling mill-wheel life of a large school and that for which they are supposed to be preparing.... to educate girls in crowds is to educate them wrongly.

  Elizabeth Missing Sewell

  Girl, Children, School

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• Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but he has few bearers of His Cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire His tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but He finds few hands who will be with Him in His abstinence and fastingBut those who love Jesus purely for Himself, and not for their own profit or convenience, bless Him as heartily in temptation and tribulation and in all other adversities as they do in time of consolation. And if He never sent them consolation, they would still bless and praise Him.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Jesus, Drinking, Adversity

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• The besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of criticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation, yield to it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and flatterers. "Authorities," "disciples," and "schools" are the curse of science and do more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit than all its enemies.

  Thomas Huxley

  School, Men, Yield

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1967). “The Essence of T. H. Huxley: Selections Form His Writings”

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• There is a temptation in politics to look for simplistic slogans and to play the game in a way that looks like you're a savvy politician.

  Kathleen Wynne

  Games, Play, Looks

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• Temptation provokes me to look upward to God.

  John Bunyan

  Looks, Look Up, Provoking

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• Many of us suffer from temptations from which we have no business to suffer.

  Oswald Chambers

  Suffering

  Oswald Chambers (1994). “My Utmost for His Highest: The Golden Book of Oswald Chambers : Features the Author's Daily Prayers”, Discovery House Pub

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• Virtue is but heroic bravery, to do the thing thought to be true, in spite of all enemies of flesh or spirit, in despite of all temptations or menaces.

  Albert Pike

  Bravery, Enemy, Flesh

  Albert Pike (2013). “Morals and Dogma”, p.34, Simon and Schuster

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• We over-estimate the conscience of our friend. His goodness seems better than our goodness, his nature finer, his temptations less. Everything that is his,--his name, his form, his dress, books, and instruments,--fancy enhances. Our own thought sounds new and larger from his mouth.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friendship, Book, Names

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.90

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• I am too impatient to wait for temptation to come to me.

  Mason Cooley

  Waiting, Impatient

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• Either offer me something I really like, or stop trying to tempt me.

  Mason Cooley

  Trying, Stop Trying, Offers

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• In truth, it requires not only a large intellect, but a large heart, to judge with becoming charity of the peculiar temptations of riches.

  Shirley Bassey

  Heart, Judging, Peculiar

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