Quotes About Temptation

To say it again: it is the greatest temptation of the rational faculty to glorify its own capacity and its own productions and to claim that in the face of its theories nothing transcendent or outside its domain need exist. This means that all important facts have been discovered. This means that nothing important remains unknown.

Our primordial parents hearkened to the snake. They ate the fruit. Their eyes opened. They both awoke. You might think, as Eve did initially, that this would be a good thing. Sometimes, however, half a gift is worse than none. Adam and Eve wake up, all right, but only enough to discover some terrible things. First, they notice that they're naked.

Bread is of little use to the man who has betrayed his soul, even if he is currently starving.

To say it again: it is the greatest temptation of the rational faculty to glorify its own capacity and its own productions and to claim that in the face of its theories nothing transcendent or outside its domain need exist.

rationality is subject to the single worst temptation--to raise what it knows now to the status of an absolute.

Svaka ku?a od medenjaka unutra krije vješticu koja jede djecu.

The beneficence of the world manifests itself to those who live properly. That's better than bread. That's better than the money that will buy bread. Thus Christ, the symbolically perfect individual, overcomes the first temptation.

the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there's nothing freeing about that.

my first reaction to a command might just be that nobody, not even God, tells me what to do, even if it's good for me. But the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there's nothing freeing about that.

Adultery is still in.

It will render you more likely to abuse cocaine and alcohol, as you live for the present in a world full of uncertain futures.

El caos es el recóndito fondo oceánico al que Pinocho viajó para rescatar a su padre de Monstruo, la ballena que escupía fuego. Ese viaje hacia la oscuridad es una de las pruebas más difíciles que un muñeco tiene que superar si quiere ser real, si quiere arrancarse de las tentaciones del engaño, el fingimiento, la victimización, el placer impulsivo y la subyugación totalitaria, es decir, si quiere ocupar un puesto como verdadero Ser en el mundo.

Actions based upon the desire to take responsibility; to make things better; to avoid temptation and face what we would rather avoid; to act voluntarily, courageously, and truthfully—these make what comes into Being much better, in all ways, for ourselves and for others, than what arises as a consequence of avoidance, resentment, the search for revenge, or the desire for mayhem.

But what I sincerely hope is that my life serves as a cautionary tale to the rich and poor alike; to anyone who's living with a spoon up their nose and a bunch of pills dissolving in their stomach sac; or to any person who's considering taking a God-given gift and misusing it; to anyone who decides to go to the dark side of the force and live a life of unbridled hedonism. And to anyone who thinks there's anything glamorous about being known as a Wolf of Wall Street. BOOK I

I'd blow someone for a valium," I said in Jacob's ear. "Maybe he's got one... but try offering a hand-job first so you retain some leverage.

Jacob slid down my body and knelt in front of me. The two of us were wedged into the narrow lane between the and the dresser. He took the front button of my shirt into his mouth. I heard a snap. He spat, and a button pinged to the floor. He was nuts. He'd scammed the quarterly mental health exam and was certifiably insane. Not that that's ever stopped me from sleeping with anyone.

There is real danger that, by strengthening our abilities to analyze some questions mathematically, we acquire a general confidence in our beliefs, which extends unjustifiably to those things we're still wrong about. We become like those pious people who, over time, accumulate a sense of their own virtuousness so powerful as to make them believe the bad things they do are virtuous too. I'll do my best to resist that temptation. But watch me carefully.

If you dance with the devil, the devil don't change, he changes you.

Qué más quieren si ya salen de noche, practican el sexo y hacen lo que les da la gana? ¿Por qué además han de destruirse? ¿Es eso libertad?

The devil has taken possession of everybody in Ilhéus. All they think about is money and bigness. They're on the road to hell. Things are going to start happening…

Lá iniciara Inês sua plantação de chifres e podia afirmar, com pleno conhecimento de causa, existirem condições propícias ao exercício da boa lavoura com seguro penhor de colheita farta. Discretíssimos castelos, bangalôs ocultos entre coqueiros em praias selvagens, com a brisa e o mar, um sonho. Quanto a rapazes, havia cada um!

Tu está tão bonita, tu nem sabe… Tu parece uma cebola, carnuda e sumarenta, boa de morder… Quem tem razão é o salafra do Vivaldo… Bota cada olho em teu pandeiro, aquele fístula…

Dona Flor via o torso forte do esposo sob o pijama, as largas omoplatas, o cangote rijo, os músculos do braço. Mordendo os lábios, tratou de desviar o pensamento, pois sendo segunda-feira não era dia dessas coisas. Sistemático, o doutor mantinha nisso e em tudo a mais perfeita ordem.

As portas do inferno se abriram e o anjo revel transpôs a entrada do quarto de dormir (e amar) de dona Flor, aceso o olhar em frete, a boca num convite e todo inteiro nu. Se nem uma santa resistiu a esse olhar, ao apelo desse riso, a esse peito aberto, como poderá fazê-lo dona Flor?