Temptation Quotes - Page 29

• Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: The horror! The horror!

  Joseph Conrad

  Struggle, Pride, Expression

  Heart of Darkness ch. 3 (1902)

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• Which is scarier-- lust or temptation?

  Craig Thompson

  Lust

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• wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to temptation!

  Eric Jerome Dickey

  Way, Grace Christian, Broads

  Eric Jerome Dickey (2000). “Liar's Game”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

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• In our heart we know that life loves life. Yet we feast on some of the other life-forms with which we share our planet; we kill to live. Taste is what carries us across that rocky moral terrain, what makes the horror palatable, and the paradox we could not defend by reason melts into a jungle of sweet temptations.

  Diane Ackerman

  Sweet, Heart, Love Life

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of the Senses”, p.172, Vintage

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• Temptation said that we all dream of committing crimes, but that only the unbalanced make that macabre idea a reality.

  Paulo Coelho

  Dream, Reality, Ideas

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• The most temptation I'd experienced had been with Tomas, the Senate's spy who had been feeding off me without permission, and Mircea, who was probably plotting some nefarious scheme. I have no taste in men.

  Karen Chance

  Men, Spy, Taste

  Karen Chance (2006). “Touch the Dark”, p.226, Penguin

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• Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age of the Church Fathers. For that very reason, the urge to seek a path of spiritual light can be a subtle temptation to sin. It certainly is sin if it means a frank rejection of the burden of our age, an escape into unreality and spiritual illusion, so as not to share the misery of other men.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Father, Mean

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• When I say 'I will be true to you' I am drawing a quiet space beyond the reach of other desires. No one can legislate love; it cannot be given orders or cajoled into service. Love belongs to itself, deaf to pleading and unmoved by violence. Love is not something you can negotiate. Love is the one thing stronger than desire and the only proper reason to resist temptation.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Love Is, Order, Drawing

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• The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest.

  Isaac Asimov

  Fighting, Self, Way

  Isaac Asimov (1986). “Foundation Trilogy”, Del Rey

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• It is neither easy nor agreeable to dredge this abyss of viciousness, and yet I think it must be done, because what could be perpetrated yesterday could be attempted again tomorrow, could overwhelm us and our children. One is tempted to turn away with a grimace and close one's mind: this is a temptation one must resist. In fact, the existence of the death squads had a meaning, a message: 'We, the master race, are your destroyers, but you are no better than we are; if we so wish, and we do so wish, we can destroy not only your bodies, but also your souls, just as we have destroyed ours.

  Primo Levi

  Children, Thinking, Race

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• People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked.

  Terry Pratchett

  Opportunity, People, Wicked

  Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett (2011). “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch”, p.39, Harper Collins

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• Being free means "being free for the other," because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Mean, Being Free, Bounds

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1997). “Creation and Fall Temptation: Two Biblical Studies”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

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• Resist the temptation to think what afflicts you is peculiar to you. Have faith that what is in your consciousness can be communicated to the consciousness of all. And is, in many cases, already there.

  Alice Walker

  Thinking, Peculiar, Have Faith

  Alice Walker (1990). “The Temple of My Familiar”

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• Nothing can hurt you except sin; nothing can grieve me except sin; nothing can defeat you except sin. Therefore, be on your guard, my Mansoul.

  John Bunyan

  Hurt, Grieving, Sin

  John Bunyan (1997). “Your Victory in Christ”, Whitaker Distribution

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• Wow," I said, since it was all I could think of to say. "Wow. That's some outfit." When you've got a big guy wearing Lycra it doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. I resisted the temptation to ask Eric to turn around. "I don't believe I could be convincing as a queen," Eric said, "but I decided this sent such a mixed signal, almost anything was possible." He fluttered his eyelashes at me. Eric was definitely enjoying this. "Oh, yes," I said, trying to find somewhere else to look. (Living Dead in Dallas)

  Charlaine Harris

  Queens, Believe, Thinking

  Charlaine Harris (2002). “Living Dead in Dallas: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel”, p.204, Penguin

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• The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.

  Brennan Manning

  Age, Looks, Sin

  Brennan Manning (2008). “The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out”, p.81, Multnomah

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• In the deceitfulness of our hearts, we sometimes play with temptation by entertaining the thought that we can always confess and later ask forgiveness. Such thinking is exceedingly dangerous. God’s judgement is without partiality. He never overlooks our sin. He never decides not to bother, since the sin is only a small one. No, God hates sin intensely whenever and wherever He finds it.

  Jerry Bridges

  Hate, Heart, Thinking

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• ...in any land, in any country under modern free competition, to lay any class of weak and despised people, be they white, black, or blue, at the political mercy of their stronger, richer, and more resourceful fellows, is a temptation which human nature seldom has withstood and seldom will withstand.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Country, Blue, Land

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois”, p.113, Oxford University Press

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• Power was my weakness and my temptation.

  J. K. Rowling

  Weakness, Deathly Hallows

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• I have found that people who can successfully resist temptation invariably lead depressingly stunted lives.

  C.D. Payne

  People, Found

  C.D. Payne (2009). “Youth in Revolt: Now a major motion picture from Dimension Films starring Michael Cera”, p.33, Broadway Books

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• It's all about getting the hand of things. Easy does it; take it easy. You'll figure everything out in time. But for right now, just keep trying. Pay attention and avoid the temptation to go further than you're ready. Talk less. And listen more.

  Kate Jacobs

  Hands, Trying, Pay

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• He had angered Providence by resisting too many temptations. There was nothing left but heaven, where he would meet only those who, like him, had wasted earth.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Heaven, Earth, Providence

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works”, p.1105, e-artnow

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• The temptation is to stay inside; to subside into the kind of recluse whom neighborhood children regard with derision and little awe; to let the hedges and weeds grow up, to allow the doors to rust shut, to lie on my bed in some gown-shaped garment and let my hair lengthens and spread out over the pillow and my fingernails to sprout into claws, while candle wax drips onto the carpet. But long ago I made a choice between classicism and romanticism. I prefer to be upright and contained—an urn in daylight.

  Margaret Atwood

  Weed, Children, Growing Up

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• But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.

  Oscar Wilde

  Memories, Passion, Yield

  Oscar Wilde (2005). “Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.29, Prestwick House Inc

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• What can you ever really know of other people's souls — of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole of creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him.

  C. S. Lewis

  Struggle, Fate, Opportunity

  C.S. Lewis (1960). “Mere Christianity”

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