"If there is something that you have to do, resist the temptation to do it under duress. Ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that would happen if I didn't do this?" And if you can get away with not doing it at all, don't do it. And then imagine what would it feel like to have this done. Spend a day or two, if you can, just 15 minutes here, 5 minutes here, 2 minutes here, here and here, imagining it completed in a way that pleases you! And then, the next time you decide that you're going to take action about it, the action is going to be a whole lot easier."
Temptation quotes
Temptation
783 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Temptation
Browse quotes that often appear alongside temptation — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Temptation quotes (page 4 of 40)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"We must learn to do more with temptation than just bear it - we must learn to use it. The secret of using temptation, and turning it to our advantage, is one of life's greatest secrets. Once we have learned it we are unbeatable and unbreakable."
"So long as nuclear weapons continue to exist, so will the temptation to threaten others with overwhelming military force."
"After an error you need not only to remove the causes but also to correct the error itself: after a sin you must not only, if possible, remove the temptation, you must also go back and repent the sin itself. In each case an 'undoing' is required."
"There is nothing new about humanism. It is the yielding to Satan's first temptation of Adam and Eve: "Ye shall be as gods." (Gen. 3:5)"
"I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame And every time I pass that way I always hear my name"
"Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it."
"His Majesty [the Lord] . . . rewards great services with trials, and there can be no better reward, for out of trials springs love for God."
"Technology is not in itself opposed to spirituality and to religion. But it presents a great temptation."
"And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'That path leads ever down into stagnation."
"It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others."
"Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted. We are in fact very like honest but reluctant taxpayers."
"If we resist the temptation to allow other people to define who we are, then we will gradually be able to let the sun inside our own soul shine forth."
"What we need in appointive positions is men of knowledge and experience who have sufficient character to resist temptations."
"The fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptation, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned."
"People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked."
"The greek word for temptation means to test, to try, to prove."
"Where unclarity resides, there is temptation, and there it proves only too easily the stronger. Wherever there is ambiguity, wherever there is wavering, there is disobedience down at the bottom."
"We are creatures of imitation. We find it hard to resist the temptation to do that which we see others doing."
"I love the soul that dares tread the temptations of his years beneath his youthful feet."