Profoundly inspirational temptation quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.
Famous Temptation Quotes
We Catholics must admit that there is a constant temptation among us to avoid the lectionary and the Word of God for private and pious devotions that usually have little power to actually change us or call our ego assumptions into question. — Richard Rohr
Those who believe in the importance of serving others should lead the way by fighting against the temptation we all have, and maybe especially as we age, to close in upon ourselves. — Marvin Olasky
One of the important things about temptation is, if I’m going to deal with it I’m going to have to recognize, this is an area of weakness in my life. I have been tempted here before and before and before. — Charles Stanley
I always loved Little Anthony and the Imperials. They were like the precursors of the Temptations. I loved their music. — Bobby Keys
It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations. — Walter Bagehot
It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution. — Anthony Trollope
If we know anything about man, it’s that he’s not pacific. The temptation to butcher anyone considered undesirable seems to be a common temptation, not always resisted. — Larry McMurtry
I’m here today to warn you: I want you to watch out for the adversary. Guard yourself from any spirit of entitlement. Restrain any and all subtle temptation to gain attention or to find ways to promote yourself. — Charles R. Swindoll
Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty. — Earl Wilson
The pursuit of beauty is much more dangerous nonsense than the pursuit of truth or goodness, because it affords a stronger temptation to the ego. — Northrop Frye
It was a decision to work clean. I just prefer to work that way. I have no problem with comedians who don’t work that way. There was a temptation in the early ’70s to reconsider. I decided against it. — Bob Newhart
We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are. — Thomas a Kempis
With the ’60s era and Motown, my grandparents actually introduced us to that when I was younger, so I grew up listening to the Jackson Five, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Supremes and Diana Ross’ solo stuff. I just loved it. — Jordin Sparks
I also think we need to maintain distinctions – the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology, and we should resist the temptation, which sometimes scientists give in to, to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science. — John Polkinghorne
When one cannot appraise out of one’s own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser. — Marianne Moore
I do not have a merchandise line. I don’t sell knives or apparel. Though I have been approached to endorse various products from liquor to airlines to automobiles to pharmaceuticals dozens of times, I have managed to resist the temptation. — Anthony Bourdain
When you’re first starting out, there’s always the temptation to hide behind distortion because it lets you get away with murder. But, when it comes to rhythm work, you’ve gotta back off that gain control a bit, especially if you’re playing with another guitarist. — Kirk Hammett
Nor is it the least advantage to health, accruing from such a way of life, that it expose those who follow it to fewer temptations to vice, than persons who live in crowded society. — William Falconer
The experiments show quite clearly that, as you resist more and more temptation, you’re actually more and more likely to fail. — Dan Ariely
Judges need to restrict themselves to the proper resolution of the case before them. They need to avoid the temptation to set broad policy. — Mike DeWine
The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason. — T. S. Eliot
Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph? — Robert Browning
The temptations are great to simply retreat to the domain of private life and give up on our public problems. — Lee H. Hamilton
Idleness is a constant sin, and labor is a duty. Idleness is the devil’s home for temptation and for unprofitable, distracting musings; while labor profit others and ourselves — Anne Baxter
People naturally long for a bit of the wealth that is whorling all around them, and if the work and education available to them won’t get them closer to the comforts that they see others enjoying, the temptation to take shortcuts can be fierce. — Katherine Boo
Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue. — William Shakespeare
I think when you’re trying to produce a relationship on screen that doesn’t actually exist, perhaps sometimes there’s a temptation to look at each other more, to touch each other more. — Paul Bettany
There are temptations around you all the time. The trick is to work your way through anxiety or your tiredness or whatever, and not let yourself get so hungry that you’re going and stopping for the burgers, and you don’t view it as reward. You’re doing better for yourself is eating better food. — Lisa Ann Walter
Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it. — Mary Wortley Montagu
Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in gay, fine colours, that are but skin-deep. — Matthew Henry
Let a man be but in earnest in praying against a temptation as the tempter is in pressing it, and he needs not proceed by a surer measure. — Robert South
The most important lesson I’ve learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did. — Penelope Cruz
There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice. — Mark Twain
You know what, life is full of temptations — Smokey Robinson
The danger for any artist whose work is both recognizable and critically acclaimed is complacent repetition – the temptation to churn out easily identifiable, eagerly welcomed, and readily salable designs. — Martin Filler
Why resist temptation? There will always be more. — Don Herold
Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice. — Lyman Abbott
As for writing about temptation, there’s no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama. — Tom Perrotta
Temptation coaxes us toward sin, and sin leads to sickness and death, and ultimately confinement in the realm of the evil one. — Frederica Mathewes-Green
You oughtn’t to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd. — Anthony Hope
The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. — Thomas Merton
We’re all going to be victims of temptation at several points in our lives. — Smokey Robinson
There is a temptation in politics to look for simplistic slogans and to play the game in a way that looks like you’re a savvy politician. — Kathleen Wynne
I know that each of us has much to do. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by the tasks we face. But if we keep our priorities in order, we can accomplish all that we should. We can endure to the end regardless of temptations, problems, and challenges. — Joseph B. Wirthlin
I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me. — George Bernard Shaw
The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for. — Tucker Max
Temptation has been here ever since the Garden of Eden. — Jerry Falwell
The very best Labor governments in our nation’s history distinguished themselves by thinking big and, wherever possible, resisting the temptation to overemphasise short-term political considerations. — Anthony Albanese
There is no arguing with the pretenders to a divine knowledge and to a divine mission. They are possessed with the sin of pride, they have yielded to the perennial temptation. — Walter Lippmann
No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object. — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation. — Oscar Wilde
I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled, and thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them. — Tiger Woods
Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in. — Billy Sunday
The whole mystery of temptation is to have sins suggested to us, and to be swept after them by a sudden enthusiasm, which sometimes feels as strong as the Spirit of God ever made in us the enthusiasm for virtue. — George A. Smith
The Temptations still stand today, not in spite of those who left us, but because of them. — Otis Williams
Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings. — George Orwell
For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied – 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. — Catherine the Great
We gain the strength of the temptation we resist. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knowledge of God’s Word is a bulwark against deception, temptation, accusation, even persecution. — Edwin Louis Cole
My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage. — Bruno Mars
No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it. — James Allen
Those who are faithful to God are protected and prospered. That comes as the result of serving God and keeping His commandments. But with those blessings comes the temptation to forget their source. It is easy to begin to feel the blessings were granted not by a loving God on whom we depend but by our own powers. — Henry B. Eyring
At one time or another, we have all faced the temptation to disconnect by giving someone the silent treatment. After being married to Joel for more than twenty-one years, I have learned that is not the best way to handle a disagreement. — Victoria Osteen
Temptation is a woman’s weapon and man’s excuse. — H. L. Mencken
Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought. — Margaret Oliphant
God grant you the strength to fight off the temptations of surrender. — Walter Annenberg
A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best. — Raymond Carver
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. — William Butler Yeats
Whether something is old-fashioned or not doesn’t resolve the question of whether it’s true or not. I can see the temptation of simply thinking, ‘Well, there’s a cultural mainstream which flows neatly in one direction. You just align with it’. And that really won’t do. — Rowan Williams
Temptation is as old as time; or at least, the history of temptation extends as far back as the moment Eve gave Adam that serpent’s apple. But what sets the lady apart from the tramp is the ability to acknowledge she needs to clean up her act – and then, of course, the fact that she actually does clean up her act. — Derek Blasberg
There’s an awful temptation to just keep on researching. There comes a point where you just have to stop, and start writing. — David McCullough
The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil. — Thomas Malthus
Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes. — E. Stanley Jones
But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor. — Alexander Pope
It is a big temptation to me, when I create a character for a novel, to say that he is what he is because of faulty wiring, or because of microscopic amounts of chemicals which he ate or failed to eat on that particular day. — Kurt Vonnegut
That’s what I loved about Temptation Island. I don’t even know why they did it. — Kathy Griffin
God’s purpose in creation was to let us prove ourselves. The plan was explained to us in the spirit world before we were born. We were valiant enough there to qualify for the opportunity to choose against temptation here to prepare for eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God. — Henry B. Eyring
We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift. — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted. — James Branch Cabell
I have been exposed to a great amount of temptation throughout the course of my career. — DeForest Kelley
Most fathers don’t see the war within the daughter, her struggles with conflicting images of the idealized and flawed father, her temptation both to retreat to Daddy’s lap and protection and to push out of his embrace to that of beau and the world beyond home. — Victoria Secunda
Obedience brings peace in decision making. If we have firmly made up our minds to follow the commandments, we will not have to redecide which path to take when temptation comes our way. — James E. Faust
Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory. — Frederick William Faber
I never give in to the temptation to be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. That would be too ridiculous. — Jacques Derrida
Some are wrong because they are not strong enough to fight temptation and some some are wrong because they do not know. — Arsene Wenger
In spite of all temptations of belonging to many nations, I’ve remained an Indian. — Vikram Seth
I resist the temptation to curate my apartment. — Thelma Golden
The biggest temptation I believe is to feel comfortable, to feel like you’ve worked through all of that here on Earth, and are satisfied with this life. — Nick Vujicic
We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation. — William Hazlitt
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable. — Mark Twain
One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys. — E. M. Forster
The temptation in any approaching crisis or conflict is, because people haven’t got a clue what lies ahead, they’re always searching into the past for some sort of pattern … to galvanise the nation or their supporters and put themselves on a pedestal to sound Churchillian or Rooseveltian. — Antony Beevor
Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centred and even solipsistic. — Christopher Hitchens
The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry. — Henry A. Kissinger
Pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one. The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery. — Pope John Paul II
It is a temptation for me to wear all my rings at once. — Anna Held
So long as nuclear weapons continue to exist, so will the temptation to threaten others with overwhelming military force. — Daisaku Ikeda
Often the work of the Lord itself may be a temptation to keep us from that communion with Him which is so essential to the benefit of our own souls. — George Muller
Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body. — H. L. Mencken
‘Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall. — William Shakespeare
