Tempted Quotes - Page 10

• Most religion-mongers have bated their paradises with a bit of toasted cheese. They have tempted the body with large promises of possessions in their transmortal El Dorado. Sancho Panza will not quit his chimney-corner, but under promise of imaginary islands to govern.

  James Russell Lowell

  Islands, Promise, Religion

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.109

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• You cannot judge a man's life by the success of a moment, by the victory of an hour, or even by the results of a year. You must view his life as a whole. You must stand where you can see the man as he treads the entire path that leads from the cradle to the grave - now crossing the plain, now climbing the steeps, now passing through pleasant fields, now wending his way with difficulty between rugged rocks - tempted, tried, tested, triumphant.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Men, Rocks, Climbing

  William Jennings Bryan, Mary Baird Bryan (1900). “The Life and Speeches of Hon. Wm. Jennings Bryan”

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• If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it. No man is compelled to evil: his consent only makes it his. It is no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome.

  William Penn

  Men, Evil, Weakness

  Benjamin Franklin, William Penn (2012). “Franklin's Way to Wealth and Penn's Maxims”, p.60, Courier Corporation

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• ... there are many to whom money has no personal appeal, but who can be tempted by the power it confers.

  Agatha Christie

  Appeals

  Agatha Christie (2003*). “Murder at the manor”

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• I have experienced the intensity of patriotism as a submarine officer, the ambitions of a competitive businessman, and the intensity of political debate. I have been sorely tempted to launch a military attack on foreigners, and have felt the frustration of having to negotiate with allies or even former enemies to reach a consensus instead of taking more decisive unilateral action.

  Jimmy Carter

  Military, Ambition, Frustration

  Jimmy Carter (2014). “The Jimmy Carter Library”, p.429, Simon and Schuster

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• There have been many times when I have been so entirely sickened of life it was very hard to work to keep on, a half dozen times I have been tempted to suicide, but I am glad I did not give way, for I have always felt that the last half of my life would somehow atone for the first half, and I still think it may ... It is not possible to live in this world without suffering unless one is a born stone. But it is also possible to have a great deal of happiness in spite of the suffering.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Suicide, Thinking, Giving

  Katherine Anne Porter, Isabel Bayley (1994). “Letters of Katherine Anne Porter”, p.94, Atlantic Monthly Press

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• Galvanized people can do careless things. It is in the extreme and emotion-laden moments that distance and coolness are most required. I am tempted to howl in rage. It is not my place to do so. My job is to try to dissect the event, place it in context and try to understand what has happened and why. From that, after the rage cools, plans for action can be made. Rage has its place, but actions must be taken with discipline and thought.

  George Friedman

  Jobs, Distance, Taken

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• I've never been tempted by God but I like his trappings.

  Jeanette Winterson

  God

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• Let it be ours to be self-reliant amidst hosts of the vacillating — real in a generation of triflers — true amongst a multitude of shams; when tempted to swerve from principle, sturdy as an oak in its maintenance; when solicited by the enticement of sinners, firm as a rock in our denial.

  William Morley Punshon

  Real, Rocks, Self

  William Morley Punshon (1882). “Lectures”

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• It is a fallacy to think that carping is the strongest form of criticism: the important work begins after the artist's mistakes have been pointed out, and the reviewer can't put it off indefinitely with sneers, although some neophytes might be tempted to try: "When in doubt, stick out your tongue" is a safe rule that never cost one any readers. But there's nothing strong about it, and it has nothing to do with the real business of criticism, which is to do justice to the best work of one's time, so that nothing gets lost.

  Wilfrid Sheed

  Strong, Real, Mistake

  "Essays in Disguise" by Wilfrid Sheed, Knopf, (pp. xvi-xvii), 1990.

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• I have precious little sympathy for the selfish propriety of civilized man, and if aware of races should occur between the wild beasts and Lord Man, I would be tempted to sympathise with the bears.

  John Muir

  Men, Would Be, Littles

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• What I believe is so magnificent, so glorious, that it is beyond finite comprehension. To believe that the universe was created by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love of us, defies reason. It is so wild that it terrifies some Christians who try to dogmatize their fear by lashing out at other Christians, because tidy Christianity with all answers given is easier than one which reaches out to the wild wonder of God's love, a love we don't even have to earn.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Christian, Believe, Broken

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• Many times we are tempted to defer to the documents we create, rather than the direct experiences we have.

  John Paul Caponigro

  Photographer, Documents, Direct

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• Little white lies are part of everyday life. If youre in court being charged with a felony, youre probably going to be tempted to lie. Or if your girlfriend asks you if the sweater she is wearing makes her look fat; youre going to lie because you love that person. There are different reasons and justifications to lie; its human nature.

  Monica Raymund

  Girlfriend, Lying, Sweaters

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• So I am praying while not knowing how to pray. I am resting while feeling restless, at peace while tempted, safe while still anxious, surrounded by a cloud of light while still in darkness, in love while still doubting.

  Henri Nouwen

  Clouds, Light, Knowing

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• Do not be tempted to invest in a sample of each golfing invention as soon as it makes its appearance. If you do, you will only complicate and spoil your game - and encumber your locker with useless rubbish.

  Harry Vardon

  Golf, Games, Temptation

  Harry Vardon (2010). “The Complete Golfer”, p.168, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Gratitude is at the center of a life of faith. It sounds to simple to be true, but isn't that the sign of all deep truth: so simple we're tempted to dismiss it, and so hard, it is exactly what God uses to change our hard lives.

  Ann Voskamp

  Gratitude, Simple, Hard Life

  Source: livesentresources.wordpress.com

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• No place, no company, no age, no person is temptation-free; let no man boast that he was never tempted, let him not be high-minded, but fear, for he may be surprised in that very instant wherein he boasteth that he was never tempted at all.

  Herbert Spencer

  Men, Temptation, Age

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• The Seconds that tick as the clock moves along
  Are Privates who march with a spirit so strong.
  The Minutes are Captains. The Hours of the day
  Are Officers brave, who lead on to the fray.
  So, remember, when tempted to loiter and dream
  You've an army at hand; your command is supreme;
  And question yourself, as it goes on review--
  Had it helped in the fight with the best it could do?

  Philander Chase Johnson

  Dream, Strong, Moving

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• A life without an objective is much like a ship at sea with no port in mind. It drifts with the waves or storms, or with the whim of the captain. They are tempted to ask, amidst the battles of life, "Is the struggle worth-while?" That attitude lessens the joy of living. They who say that there is no purpose in life are not unhappy, but become dangerous to themselves and others, for they have no safe guide for their actions. Indeed, life has not objective save physical satisfactions, it is empty and valueless.

  John Andreas Widtsoe

  Attitude, Struggle, Sea

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• The ignorant are a reservoir of daring. It almost seems that those who have yet to discover the known are particularly equipped for dealing with the unknown. The unlearned have often rushed in where the learned feared to tread, and it is the credulous who are tempted to attempt the impossible. They know not whither they are going, and give chance a chance.

  Eric Hoffer

  Giving, Ignorant, Atheism

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Curiosity, Mind

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.163, Univ of California Press

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• Confucius was not so much a philsopher as a proto-ideologist: what interested him was not metaphysical Truths but rather a harmonious social order within which individuals could lead happy and ethical lives. He was the first to outline clearly what one is tempted to call the elementary scene of ideology, its zero-level, which consists in asserting the (nameless) authority of some substantial Tradition.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Zero, Order, Levels

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• I have known men who thought the object of conversion was to cleanse them as a garment is cleansed, and that when they are converted they were to be hung up in the Lord's wardrobe, the door of which was to be shut, so that no dust could get at them. A coat that is not used the moths eat; and a Christian who is hung up so that he shall not be tempted, the moths eat him; and they have poor food at that.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Christian, Men, Dust

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• A dogmatical spirit inclines a man to be censorious of his neighbors. Every one of his opinions appears to him written, as it were, with sunbeams, and he grows angry that his neighbors do not see it in the same light. He is tempted to disdain his correspondents as men of low and dark understandings because they do not believe what he does.

  Isaac Watts

  Believe, Dark, Men

  Isaac Watts, Joseph Emerson (1855). “The Improvement of the Mind”, p.29

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