1.
No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy Scriptures.
John Bunyan
No individual, without hardships and enticements, can acquire a genuine comprehension of the Sacred Writings.
2.
If God has called you, the more they block your way, the more that trouble and temptation, the more God's love is provoked. Each attempt to stop you asks for more evidence from God.
T. B. Joshua
If God has beckoned you, the more that hindrance and trial, the more His adoration is stirred. Each endeavor to impede your progress necessitates further proof from God.
3.
Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.
Martin Luther
We can't avoid being lured by enticements, but since we cannot prevent the birds from soaring above us, there is no reason to permit them to make their home in our locks.
4.
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
5.
When you're not happy, you need to be strong to change, resisting the temptation of turning back. The weak goes nowhere
Ayrton Senna
6.
Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.
Billy Sunday
Allurement is the devil peering through the keyhole. Submitting is unlocking the portal and welcoming him in.
7.
If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation.
John Owen
If we do not persist in prayer, we will succumb to temptation.
8.
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
9.
Women have traditionally been either put on pedestals or damned as the source of all sexual temptation and sin. These are two sides of the same coin, since both place women in a nonhuman role. Playboy has opposed these warped sexual values and, in so doing, helped women step down from their pedestals and enjoy their natural sexuality as much as men.
Hugh Hefner
10.
Every temptation that is resisted, every evil thought that is curbed, every desire that is subdued, every bitter word that is withheld, every noble aspiration that is encouraged, every sublime thought that is cultivated, adds to the development of will-force, good character, and attainment of eternal bliss and immortality.
Sivananda
11.
It often happens that we pray God to deliver us from some dangerous temptation, and yet that God does not hear us, but permits the temptation to continue troubling us. In such a case, let us understand that God permits even this for our greater good.
Alphonsus Liguori
12.
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Saint Peter
13.
Speaking of a future at most only decades away, an experimenter in intelligence control asserted, “I foresee a time when we shall have the means and therefore, inevitably, the temptation to manipulate the behavior and intellectual functioning of all the people through environmental and biochemical manipulation of the brain.
Zbigniew Brzezinski
14.
Holiness is not freedom from temptation, but power to overcome temptation.
G. Campbell Morgan
15.
A standing army is like a standing member. It's an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure.
Elbridge Gerry
17.
The devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you've ever wished for.
Tucker Max
18.
Plainness has its peculiar temptations and vices quite as much as beauty.
George Eliot
19.
We all have the temptation to be backseat drivers when it comes to decisions that don't work out the way we want.
Don Mattingly
20.
Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife.
Pope Leo I
21.
Were you to ask what are the means of overcoming temptations, I would answer: The first means is prayer; the second is prayer; the third is prayer; and you should you ask me a thousand times, I would repeat the same.
Alphonsus Liguori
22.
If you play with temptation do not expect God will deliver you
Mary Slessor
23.
There is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be given concerning them.
Matthew Henry
24.
Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that reared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them.
John Bunyan
26.
Knowledge of God's Word is a bulwark against deception, temptation, accusation, even persecution.
Edwin Louis Cole
27.
As soon as one promises not to do something, it becomes the one thing above all others that one most wishes to do.
Georgette Heyer
28.
Flee idleness... for no one is more exposed to such temptations than he who has nothing to do.
Robert Bellarmine
29.
Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.
C. J. Mahaney
30.
If your enemies see that you grow courageous, and that you will neither be seduced by flatteries nor disheartened by the pains and trials of your journey, but rather are contented with them, they will grow afraid of you.
Henry Suso
31.
Temptation and testing (or a trial) are two sides of the same coin. Satan uses an occasion or a person to tempt us to fall; God uses the same to try us and make us stronger.
Ruth Graham
32.
When you do the right thing, enjoy it! When you take positive actions, enjoy them. After all, they are leading you toward positive results. Pat yourself on the back. Truly enjoy the fact that you're making positive progress, and the negative temptations will have no power over you.
Ralph Marston
33.
Being a poet is one of the unhealthier jobs--no regular hours, so many temptations!
Elizabeth Bishop
34.
Temptation can be tormenting, but remember: The torment of temptation to sin is nothing to compare with the torment of the consequences of sin. Remorse and regret cannot compensate for sin....though sins can be forgiven immediately - the consequences can last a lifetime
Edwin Louis Cole
35.
There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection.
Pope Gregory I
36.
Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids.
Mason Cooley
37.
If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men's failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal's natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?
William Makepeace Thackeray
38.
The dangerous temptation of wildlife films is that they can lull us into thinking we can get by without the original models -- that we might not need animals in the flesh.
Doug Peacock
39.
A trustworthy marriage has weathered temptation and anger and jealousy, resentment, self-righteousness and a little bit of selfishness. When you get over and get through that, then maybe you can see the light to love.
Ruby Dee
40.
To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited.
Catherine the Great
41.
Satan gives Adam an apple, and takes away paradise. Therefore in all temptations consider not what he offers, but what we shall lose.
Richard Sibbes
42.
Avoid the temptation to work so hard that there is no time left for serious thinking.
Francis Crick
43.
For every great temptation there will be many small ones. Wolves and bears are more dangerous than flies, but we are bothered most by flies.
Saint Francis de Sales
44.
This is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God, and toexpect temptation to his last breath.
Anthony the Great
46.
These days the temptation to use steroids in sports has become too great for many young athletes.
Jim Sensenbrenner
47.
Most investors are pretty smart. Yet most investors also remain heavily invested in actively managed stock funds. This is puzzling. The temptation, of course, is to dismiss these folks as ignorant fools. But I suspect these folks know the odds are stacked against them, and yet they are more than happy to take their chances.
Jonathan Clements
48.
If Christ justifies you, He will sanctify you! He will not save you and leave you in your sins.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne
49.
It is a human inclination to hope things will work out, despite evidence or doubt to the contrary. A successful manager must resist this temptation.
Hyman Rickover