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Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is
tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him.
Author: Bible
Source: James (ch. I, v. 12)
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But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan:
thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men.
Author: Bible
Source: Matthew (ch. XVI, v. 23)
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Terrible is the temptation to be good.
Author: Bertolt Brecht
Source: The Caucasian Chalk Circle
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Why comes temptation but for man to meet
And master and make crouch beneath his foot,
And so be pedestaled in triumph?
Author: Robert Browning
Source: The Ring and the Book--The Pope (l. 1,185)
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What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.
Author: Robert Burns
Source: Address to Unco Guild (st. 8)
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I may not here omit those two main plagues, and common dotages of
human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted
myriads of people: they go commonly together.
Author: Robert Burton
Source: Anatomy of Melancholy (pt. I, sec. II, memb. 3, subsect. XIII)
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So you tell yourself you are pretty find clay
To have tricked temptation and turned it away,
But wait, my friend, for a different day;
Wait till you want to want to!
Author: Edmund Vance Cooke
Source: Desire
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The devil tempts us not--'tis we tempt him,
Reckoning his skill with opportunity.
Author: George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans Cross)
Source: Felix Holt (ch. XLVII)
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Thou shalt abstain,
Renounce, refrain.
[Ger., Entbehren sollst du! sollst entbehren.]
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: Faust (I, 4)
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Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours, that
are but skin-deep.
Author: Matthew (Mathew) Henry
Source: Commentaries (Genesis, III)
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Temptations hurt not, though they have accesse;
Satan o'ercomes none but by willingnesse.
Author: Robert Herrick
Source: Hesperides-Temptations
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Honest bread is very well--it's the butter that makes the
temptation.
Author: Douglas Jerrold
Source: The Catspaw
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But Satan now is wiser than of yore,
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 351)
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But something may be done that we will not;
And sometimes we are devils to ourselves
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The History of Troilus and Cressida (Troilus at IV, iv)
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Bell, book and candle shall not drive me back
When gold and silver becks me to come on.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life and Death of King John (Bastard at III, iii)
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How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes deeds ill done!
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Life and Death of King John (King John at IV, ii)
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Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Love's Labor's Lost (Berowne at IV, iii)
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For I am that way going to temptation,
Where prayers cross.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Measure for Measure (Angelo at II, ii)
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O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook: most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Measure for Measure (Angelo at II, ii)
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It is a creature
That dotes on Cassio, as 'tis the strumpet's plague
To beguile many and be beguiled by one.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Othello the Moor of Venice (Iago at IV, i)
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Tempt not a desperate man.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo at V, iii)
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Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold
Will tempt unto a close exploit of death?
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (King Richard at IV, ii)
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I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that
are bad for me do not tempt me.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (King Richard at IV, ii)
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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.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (King Richard at IV, ii)
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There are several good protections against temptations, but the
surest is cowardice.
Author: Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Source: Following the Equator (ch. 36)
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Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.
Author: John Dryden
Source: None
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Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a moveable body.
Author: H. L. Mencken
Source: None
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Things orbidden have a secret charm.
Author: Tacitus
Source: None
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As the Sandwich-Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptations we resist.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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It is easier to stay out than get out.
Author: Mark Twain
Source: None
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He who cannot resist temptation is not a man.
Author: Horace Mann
Source: None
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I can resist anything except temptation.
Author: Oscar Wilde
Source: None
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Temptation rarely comes in working hours. It is in their leisure hours that men are made or marred.
Author: W. M. Taylor
Source: None
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I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
Author: Mae West
Source: None
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The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.
Author: Oscar Wilde
Source: None
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