Quotes About Temptation

There are certain books that I mean to read and keep stacked by my bedside. I even take them on trips. Some of my books should be awarded their own frequent-flier miles, they've traveled so much. I take these volumes on flight after flight with the best of intentions and then end up reading anything and everything else. (Sky Mall! Golf Digest!)

Soul's Castle fell at one blast of temptation, But many a worm had pierced the foundation.

Beware of epigram! It is one of Satan's favourite disguises.

Indeed, pursuing pleasure, Seneca warns, is like pursuing a wild beast: On being captured, it can turn on us and tear us to pieces. Or, changing the metaphor a bit, he tells us that intense pleasures, when captured by us, become our captors, meaning that the more pleasures a man captures, "the more masters will he have to serve.

The problem is that "bad men obey their lusts as servants obey their masters," and because they cannot control their desires, they can never find contentment.4

Indeed, pursuing pleasure, Seneca warns, is like pursuing a wild beast: On being captured, it can turn on us and tear us to pieces. Or, changing the metaphor a bit, he tells us that intense pleasures, when captured by us, become our captors, meaning that the more pleasures a man captures, "the more masters will he have to serve."5

Seneca observes that "chastity comes with time to spare, lechery has never a moment."11

My other self lacks self-discipline; left to his own devices, he will always take the path of least resistance through life and as a result will be little more than a simple-minded pleasure seeker. He is also a coward. My other self is not my friend; to the contrary, he is best regarded, in the words of Epictetus, "as an enemy lying in wait.

Grant that the voice of our own desires may not be speaking so insistently that we become deaf to your word.

A fish might more easily live on the apex of a rock than a man accustomed to crime live a life of virtue. ("The Story of Prince Barkiarokh")

The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom...for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.

Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.

Since all the riches of this world May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings, I should suspect that I worshipp'd the Devil If I thank'd my God for worldly things.

I ask'd a thief to steal me a peach:He turned up his eyes.I ask'd a lithe lady to lie her down:Holy and meek, she cries.As soon as I wentAn angel came.He wink'd at the thiefAnd smil'd at the dame—And without one word saidHad a peach from the tree,And still as a maidEnjoy'd the lady.

Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom...You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.

It's certain that fine women eatA crazy salad with their meat.

What shall I do for pretty girlsNow my old bawd is dead?

I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.

My temptation is quiet.Here at life's endNeither loose imagination,Nor the mill of the mindConsuming its rag and bone,Can make the truth known.

Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

I have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe iceboxand whichyou were probablysavingfor breakfastForgive methey were deliciousso sweetand so cold

This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

Curst be the Gold and Silver which persuade Weak Men to follow far-fatiguing Trade! The Lilly-Peace outshines the silver Store, And Life is dearer than the golden Ore. Yet Money tempts us o'er the Desert brown, To ev'ry distant Mart and wealthy Town: Full oft we tempt the Land and Sea; And are we only yet repay'd by Thee? Ah! why was Ruin so attractive made, Or why fond Man so easily betrayed? - Eclogue the Second. Hassan; or the Camel-driver