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Temptation: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
O madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.— MILTON — Samson Agonistes. L. 553.
Well observe The rule of Not too much, by temperance taught In what thou eat'st and drink'st.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. XI. L. 531.
Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only Which your disease requires.— Shakespeare — Henry VIII. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 124.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace; Leave gormandizing.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 56.
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 Ring and the Book. The Pope. L. 1,185.
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.— BURTON — Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. II. Memb. 3.
Subsec. XIII. The devil tempts us not-'tis we tempt him, Reckoning his skill with opportunity.— GEORGE ELIOT — Felix Holt. Ch. XLVII.
Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours, that are but skin-deep.— MATHEW HENRY — Commentaries.
Genesis III. Temptations hurt not, though they have accesse; Satan o'ercomes none but by willingnesse. S.— HERRICK — Hesperides. Temptations.
Honest bread is very well-it's the butter that makes the temptation.— DOUGLAS JERROLD — The Catspaw.
In part she is to blame that has been tried : He comes too late that comes to be denied.— LADY M. W. MONTAGU — The Lady's
Resolve. In part to blame is she, Which hath without consent bin only tride; He comes too neere, that comes to be denide.— SIR THOS. OVERBURY — A Wife. St. 36.
But Satan now is wiser than of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor. C.— POPE — Moral Essays. Ep. III. L. 351.
Bell, book and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on.— Shakespeare — King John. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 12.
Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 257.
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Makes ill deeds done!— Shakespeare — King John. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 219.
How quickly nature falls into revolt When gold becomes her object!— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act IV. Sc. 5. L. 66.
I am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 158.
Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 34.
Most dangerous Is that temptation that doth goad us on To sin in loving virtue.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 181.
Sometimes we are devils to ourselves, When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 97.
To beguile many and be beguil'd by one.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 98.
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. BISHOP SOUTH. Vol. VI. Sermon 10. Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle.— SPURGEON — Gleanings Among the
Sheaves. Idleness.