William Shakespeare - Richard Dawkins TV - Vicesimus Knox - Crooks Anonymous 1962 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV - Lord Kitchener - Oscar Wilde - William Beckford - Mark Twain - John Milton - John Locke - Bertolt Brecht - John Ford - T S Eliot - Clementina Stirling Graham - Anthony Hope - Sam Levenson - Robert A Heinlein - Martin Luther King - Thomas a Kempis - Robert Orben - Mae West - P G Wodehouse - Laurie Lee & Cider With Rosie 2015 - Genesis 3:-7 - Genesis 22:1&2 - Matthew 4:1-11 - Matthew 26:41 - Luke 4:2-8 - Luke 22:40 - I Corinthians 10:9&10 - I Corinthians 10:13 - James 1:12-14 - Sirach 2:1-2 -
The strongest oaths are straw to the fire of the blood. William Shakespeare, The Tempest 2010 starring Helen Mirren & Felicity Jones & Chris Cooper & Russell Brand & Reeve Carney & Tom Conti & Alan Cumming & Dimon Hounsou & Alfred Molina & Ben Whishaw et al, director Julie Taymor, Prospera
Does this preaching work? Do religious believers resist temptation better than anyone else? Richard Dawkins, Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life I: Sin, Channel 4 2012
Can anything be more absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and yet so vehemently to insist on their resisting temptation? Vicesimus Knox
It was just asking to be taken. I couldn’t resist the temptation. I never can. Crooks Anonymous 1962 starring Leslie Phillips & Julie Christie & Stanley Baker & Wilfrid Hyde-White & Michael Medwin & Raymond Huntley & Norman Rossington et al, director Ken Annakin
Sisko: There’s always the temptation to eat too much, to drink too much.
Odo: One has to find something to do with one’s time. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s5e1: Apocalypse Rising
You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy … In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you would avoid any intimacy. Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King. Lord Kitchener, The Times 19th August 1914
I can resist everything, except temptation. Oscar Wilde, popular variation
cf.
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, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
I am not over fond of resisting temptation. William Beckford, Vathek, 1782
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice. Mark Twain, Following the Equator
Evil into the mind of God or Man
May come and go, so unapproved, and leave
No spot or blame behind. John Milton, Paradise Lost V:117-119, Adam to Eve
Each tree
Laden with fairest fruit, that hung to th’ eye
Tempting, stirr’d in me sudden appetite
To pluck and eat. ibid. VIII:30
Some devil whisper curses in my ear
And prompt me, that my tongue may utter forth
The venomous malice of swelling heart. William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus V iii 11-14, Aaron to Lucius and others
’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure II I 17-18
Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? ibid. II ii 162
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; never could the strumpet,
With all her double vigour, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Ever till now
When men are fond, I smiled and wondered. ibid. II ii 186
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it. John Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, 1690
Terrible is the temptation to be good. Bertolt Brecht
Tempt not the stars, young man, thou canst not play
With the severity of fate. John Ford, The Broken Heart, 1633
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason. T S Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, 1935
The best way to get the better of temptation is just to yield to it. Clementina Stirling Graham, 1782-1877, Mystifications
‘You oughtn’t to yield to temptation.’ ‘Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd,’ said I. Anthony Hope, The Dolly Dialogues, 1894
Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we’ll find it. Sam Levenson
We gain the strength of the temptation we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. Robert A Heinlein
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. Martin Luther King
We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are. Thomas a Kempis
Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. Robert Orben
I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it. Mae West
What’s the use of a great city having temptations if fellows don’t yield to them? P G Wodehouse, Carry on, Jeeves
Have you got any wine-gums? I’ll show you if you want. Cider with Rosie ***** 2015 starring Samantha Mortin & Archie Cox & Ruby Ashbourne Serkis & Emma Curtis & Jessica Hynes & June Whitfield & Annette Crosbie & Timothy Spall & Billy Howle & Georgie Smith et al, director Philippa Lowthorpe, BBC 2015
That summer mysterious senses clicked into play. Our thighs seemed to burn like dry grass. Emotion swung wildly, and our bodies seemed tilted out of all recognition. ibid.
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Genesis 3:1-7