Temptation Quotes - Page 32

• To know Pritkin was to want to kill him, but so far I'd resisted temptation.

  Karen Chance

  Want, Knows

  Karen Chance (2008). “Embrace the Night”, p.19, Penguin

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• There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.

  Steve Jobs

  Running, Crazy, Creativity

  "Steve Jobs". Book by Walter Isaacson, www.businessinsider.com. 2011.

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• A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.

  Umberto Eco

  Book, Humility, Curiosity

  Umberto Eco (1995). “Name of the Rose”, p.195, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I endeavored to renounce society, that I might avoid temptation. But it was a poor religion; so far as it prevailed, only tended to make me gloomy, stupid, unsociable, and useless.

  John Newton

  Stupid, Useless, Might

  John Newton (1782). “An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of ********.: Communicated in a Series of Letters, to the Reverend Mr. Haweis, ... and by Him (at the Request of Friends) Now Made Public”, p.19

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• Really? And what curse befalls the Adams of the world?" Ann opens her mouth and, presumably thinking of nothing to say, closes it again. It is Felicity who answers, eyes steely. "They are weak to temptation. And we are their temptresses.

  Libba Bray

  Eye, Thinking, Answers

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• If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in war time, we must sleep with helmet and breastplate buckled on, for the arch-deceiver will seize our first unguarded hour to make us his prey. The Lord keep us watchful in all seasons, and give us a final escape from the jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Christian, War, Sleep

  Charles Spurgeon (2016). “Morning and Evening”, p.209, Discovery House

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• Knowing was a temptation. What you don't know won't tempt you.

  Margaret Atwood

  Fear, Knowing, Knows

  Margaret Atwood (1986). “The Handmaid's Tale”, p.195, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The greatest temptations are not those that solicit our consent to obvious sin, but those that offer us great evils masking as the greatest goods.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Evil, Sin

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• Don't put one foot in your job and the other in your dream, Ed. Go ahead and quit, or resign yourself to this life. It's just too much of a temptation for fate to split you right up the middle before you've made up your mind which way to go.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Dream, Jobs, Fate

  Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Player Piano”, p.236, Dial Press

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• Sometimes, looking at the many books I have at home, I feel I shall die before I come to the end of them, yet I cannot resist the temptation of buying new books. Whenever I walk into a bookstore and find a book on one of my hobbies — for example, Old English or Old Norse poetry — I say to myself, “What a pity I can’t buy that book, for I already have a copy at home.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Book, Home, Buying

  Jorge Luis Borges, Calin Andrei Mihailescu (2000). “This Craft of Verse”, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press

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• And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'That path leads ever down into stagnation.

  Frank Herbert

  Warning, Safe, Path

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.194, Penguin

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• If I were asked to think up a new name for temptation, I should recommend the word 'doorknob', because what are these protuberances put on doors for if not to tempt us.

  Gunter Grass

  Thinking, Doors, Names

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• Those were the words she wanted to hear and she finally surrendered to the temptation of believing them.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Believe, Wanted

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• Everyone is tested. One might think it is unfair to be singled out and subjected to a particular temptation, but this is the purpose of mortal life—to be tested. And the answer is the same for everyone: we must, and we can, resist temptations of any kind.

  Boyd K. Packer

  Thinking, Purpose, Answers

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• Some temptations cannot be fought. One must close one's mind and fly from them

  A.J. Cronin

  Mind

  A.J Cronin (1942). “the Keys of the Kingdom”

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• I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster. … The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment? The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s genius.

  Sam Shepard

  Hate, Why Not, Genius

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• That was my nature - going from temptation after temptation, not to sin, but to be redeemed.

  Anne Rice

  Sin, Redeemed

  Anne Rice (2013). “The Complete Vampire Chronicles 12-Book Bundle”, p.4746, Ballantine Books

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• The first gift that Adam and Eve received was agency: ‘Thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee’ (Moses 3:17). You have that same agency. Use it wisely to deny acting on any impure impulse or unholy temptation that may come into your mind. Just do not go there, and if you are already there, come back out of it. ‘Deny yourselves of all ungodliness’ (Moroni 10:32).

  Boyd K. Packer

  Agency, Mind, Acting

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• Being a poet is one of the unhealthier jobs--no regular hours, so many temptations!

  Elizabeth Bishop

  Jobs, Writing, Poet

  Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell (2008). “Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell”

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• „I forgive you for stealing my shawl.“ She smiles as he laughs. And then she vanishes. A simple trick of distracting his attention long enough to slip out through the hall, despite the lingering temptation to stay.

  Erin Morgenstern

  Simple, Long, Laughing

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• The worm that destroys you is the temptation to agree with your critics, to get their approval.

  Thomas Harris

  Approval, Worms, Critics

  Thomas Harris (1999). “Hannibal”

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• There is a subtle danger that leads people away from religion, prevents them from submitting to God as their Lord, and ultimately, brings numerous other forms of trouble and distress upon them. This danger is ROMANTICISM, which leads people to live, not according to their reason, but according to their emotions; that is, according to their desires, hatreds, their susceptibility to temptations and their whims.

  Harun Yahya

  People, Hatred, Desire

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• If I’ve already thought through a situation and have a response prepared ahead of time in the event temptation rears its ugly head, it is that much easier to resist.

  Tim Tebow

  Events, Ugly, Easier

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• 

  The devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you've ever wished for.

  Tucker Max

  Deep Thought, Wish, Desire

  Tucker Max (2011). “Assholes Finish First”, p.321, Simon and Schuster

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• To a lover of books the shops and sales in London present irresistible temptations.

  Edward Gibbon

  Book, London, Lovers

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, with notes by Milman and Guizot. Ed. by W. Smith”, p.97

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