Temptation Quotes
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There's a great temptation to throw things in, as you put it, that you think are neat, or that you have a very clear, specific memory of and think you could do a good job writing about. What I find is that it's like a seed you plant. You can try it, and if it will grow and connect with other ideas in the book, and you can see connections that you can actually realize on the page, then you're allowed to leave it in. But if it just kind of lies there and doesn't really add up to anything or there's no chemistry with everything else going on in the book, then you have to take it out.
Rebecca Stead
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When someone is good at what he does but is a nonconformist, there is a temptation in horse racing, like in all kinds of other areas of human endeavor, to dismiss him for his nonconformity rather than to recognize him for his excellence.
David Milch
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Knowing has two poles, and they are always poles apart: carnal knowing, the laying on of hands, the hanging of the fact by head or heels, the measurement of mass and motion, the calibration of brutal blows, the counting of supplies; and spiritual knowing, invisibly felt by the inside self, who is but a fought-over field of distraction, a stage where we recite the monotonous monologue that is our life, a knowing governed by internal tides, by intimations, motives, resolutions, by temptations, secrecy, shame, and pride.
William H. Gass
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The temptation shared by all forms of intelligence: cynicism.
Albert Camus
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You think that you can judge what's good or evil from whether you enjoy doing it or not. You think that evil is what always appears in the form of a temptation, while good is what you never spontaneously want to do. I think this is all total rubbish, if you don't mind my saying so.
Hannah Arendt
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You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip.
W. Somerset Maugham
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I think it's easier to be cynical. I think the temptation, often, among writers is to write about anything other than real, true, deep feelings.
Edward Zwick
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When you're a child actor and play the precocious kid, the temptation is to wear leather pants or a cutoff shirt to redefine yourself. But I never felt the need to randomly reshuffle the deck and say, 'Don't call me Peter. Call me Pete.' I just figured you evolve naturally, and you'll be recognized for what your successes are.
Peter Billingsley
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Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the instruments of love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. ... We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.
C. S. Lewis
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You know, there's that temptation in interviews to make yourself sound - well, to give yourself a bit of mystery.
Johnny Vegas
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As any sin passes through its stages from temptation, to toleration, to approval, its name is first euphemized, then avoided, then forgotten. A colleague tells me that some of his fellow legal scholars call child molestation "intergenerational intimacy": that's euphemism. A good-hearted editor tried to talk me out of using the term "sodomy": that's avoidance. My students don't know the word "fornication" at all: that's forgetfulness.
J. Budziszewski
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Only strong characters can resist the temptation of superficial analysis.
Albert Einstein
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A man may quarrel with himself alone; that is, by controverting his better instincts and knowledge when brought face to face with temptation.
William Ellery Channing
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I don't want the world to give me anything for my books except money enough to save me from the temptation to write only for money.
George Eliot
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Holiness is not freedom from temptation, but power to overcome temptation.
G. Campbell Morgan
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Everyone is tested. One might think it is unfair to be singled out and subjected to a particular temptation, but this is the purpose of mortal life—to be tested. And the answer is the same for everyone: we must, and we can, resist temptations of any kind.
Boyd K. Packer
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There are some people that we know all our lives and yet never really feel we know them at all. But there are other people—” Unable to resist the temptation, he ran a feather-light caress down the curve of her cheek with one leather-sheathed knuckle. The cobalt depths of her eyes flickered with response, but she said nothing, heeding his every word. “—people we meet in a day, and instantly, it feels as though we’ve known them all our lives.
Gaelen Foley
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There will be increasing temptation to watch movies where you want to when you want to, and so I'm very focused on how we innovate Illumination Entertainment to keep the in-theater experience vibrant and urgent. In part I think it's what movies you're choosing to make and why those are films we feel are best enjoyed surrounded by a group of people. I also think it's continuing to look at things technologically.
Christopher Meledandri
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That acknowledgment of weakness which we make in imploring to be relieved from hunger and from temptation is surely wisely put in our daily prayer. Think of it, you who are rich, and take heed how you turn a beggar away.
William Makepeace Thackeray
