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• Temptation is the feeling we get when encountered by an opportunity to do what we innately know we shouldn’t. Steve Maraboli
• Temptation: The desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise. Oxford Dictionary
• Temptation: Something that causes a strong urge or desire to have or do something and especially something that is bad, wrong, or unwise. Merriam Webster
• Self-control,  Will power,  Self-discipline,  Pleasure,  Desire,  Cravings,  Addiction

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Everyone is subject to temptation – just by different things

• If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as his own . . . how much kinder, how much gentler he would be. William Allen White
• All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can’t be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot. Henry Ward Beecher
• For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation. William Penn
• Temptation hath a music for all ears. Nathaniel Parker Willis
• Temptation likes best those who think they have a natural immunity, for it may laugh all the harder when they succumb. Catherynne M. Valente

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Temptation can be very hard to resist …

• I can resist anything except temptation. Oscar Wilde
• I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it. Mae West
• Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty. Earl Wilson
• No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes. Henry Ward Beecher
• Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body. L. Mencken
• The problem with temptation is that you may not get another chance. Laurence J. Peter
• I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame And every time I pass that way I always hear my name. Bob Dylan

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… and is easy to find …

• Lead me not into temptation. I can find the way myself. Jane Seabrook
• Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we’ll find it. Sam Levenson
• Hard to say what’s right when all I wanna do is wrong. Prince
• Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep. Matthew Henry
• Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought. Margaret Oliphant
• O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men!  William Shakespeare
• All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it. John Locke

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… and far more persistent than opportunity

• If opportunity came disguised as temptation, one knock would be enough. Lane Olinghouse
• Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell.
• Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances. Orlando A. Battista

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Only those who resist temptation know how strong it can be

• A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. S. Lewis

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In our attempts to avoid temptation, we must be careful we don’t shut ourselves off to life

• A coat that is not used, the moths eat; and a Christian who is hung up so that he shall not be tempted–the moths eat him; and they have poor food at that. Henry Ward Beecher
• It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations. Walter Bagehot
• Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings. If one could follow it to its psychological roots, one would, I believe, find that the main motive for “non-attachment” is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work. George Orwell
• No man is matriculated to the art of life till he has been well tempted. George Eliot
• There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice. Mark Twain
• There are those who say that temptation can be barricaded beyond the door. The ones who think that stray desires can be driven out of the heart like the moneychangers from the temple. Maybe they can, if you patrol your weak points day and night, don’t look, don’t smell, don’t dream. Jeanette Winterson
• Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes. Stanley Jones

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We must not keep away from temptation but be strong and intelligent enough to resist it

• Temptations are as thick as the leaves of the forest, and no one can be out of the reach of temptation unless he is dead. The great thing is to make people intelligent enough and strong enough, not to keep away from temptation, but to resist it. Robert G. Ingersoll

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Some argue for yielding to temptation …

• The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. Oscar Wilde
• What’s the use of a great city having temptations if fellows don’t yield to them? G. Wodehouse
• Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. Robert A. Heinlein
• Why resist temptation? There will always be more. Don Herold
• There is not any memory with less satisfaction in it than the memory of some temptation we resisted. James Branch Cabell
• There is a cure for temptation. What? Yielding to it. Honore De Balzac
• The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once. Francis H. Bradley
• You oughtn’t to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd.  Anthony Hope
• You know some religious scholars believe that when faced with overwhelming temptation you should commit a small sin just to relieve the pressure a bit. Bree Despain

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Constantly giving in to temptation comes at a price

• As soon as you willfully allow a dialogue with temptation to begin, the soul is robbed of peace, just as consent to impurity destroys grace. Josemaria Escriva
• He who cannot resist temptation is not a man…. Whoever yields to temptation debases himself with a debasement from which he can never arise. Horace Mann

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Giving in to temptation reduces your resistance to it

• The most formidable attribute of temptation is its increasing power, its accelerating ratio of velocity. Every act of repetition increases power, diminishes resistance. It is like the letting out of waters–where a drop can go, a river can go. Whoever yields to temptation, subjects himself to the law of falling bodies. Horace Mann

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Giving in to temptation makes you a slave to your impulses

• A being without an aim in life, or not possessing the requisite concentration of purpose to assist him in resisting temptation, is like a cork floating upon the water, driven hither and thither by every wind that blows. Karl G. Maeser

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Temptation is a test of your inner strength

• Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore nil desperandum. March forward hero! Sivananda Saraswati
• Frequent and violent temptations were a proof that the citadel of the soul had not fallen and that the devil raged to make it fall. James Joyce
• We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are. Thomas a Kempis
• Temptation is not to be feared, but controlled. Deborah Brodie
• Strength

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Temptation is a chance for the soul to prove itself and grow

• Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. Elias A. Ford
• Without temptation the soul cannot grow. James Allen
• The soul,  Growth

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Temptation teaches us humility

• Temptation is necessary to make us realize that we are nothing in ourselves. Josemaria Escriva
• Humility

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True character is how you handle temptation when there are no witnesses

• Character is determined in the presence of temptation, and the absence of an audience. Alexandra Larsen
• Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values – and witnesses. Franklin P. Jones

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Withstanding temptation strengthens you

• Trials, temptations, disappointments — all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. James Buckham
• We gain the strength of the temptation we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• 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
• Trials, temptations, disappointments – all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. James Buckham
• 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. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Good habits result from resisting temptation. Proverb
• To go into temptation to find how strong you are, is as wise as to go before a mirror, with closed eyes, to find how you look when asleep. Ivan Panin

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Every temptation withstood is a victory and triumph

• Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory. Frederick William Faber
• Every temptation is an opportunity to triumph over evil. Marc Williams
• Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph? Robert Browning
• I like to talk to myself ahead of time so when temptation comes, I’ve already made up my mind that I have the victory. Joyce Meyer
• Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them. John Bunyan
• Victory,  Triumph

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Temptation can bring self-knowledge and learning

• There’s a lesson in every temptation. Frank Herbert
• Self-knowledge,  Learning

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Rising above temptation brings us closer to the divine

• Rise above the deceptions and temptations of the mind. This is your duty. You are born for this only; all other duties are self- created and self- imposed owing to ignorance. Sivananda Saraswati
• Man must cast out of himself everything which separates him from God. He must will to live the divine life, and he must rise above all moral temptations; he must forsake every course of action that is not in accord with his highest ideals. Wallace D. Wattles

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Temptation requires inclination and opportunity

• Temptation cannot exist without the concurrence of inclination and opportunity. E. H. Chapin
• Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.  Oscar Wilde

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Withstand temptation through principles and values

• Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour … If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? Charlotte Brontë
• Values are principles and ideas that bring meaning to the seemingly mundane experience of life. A meaningful life that ultimately brings happiness and pride requires you to respond to temptations as well as challenges with honor, dignity, and courage. Laura Schlesinger
• Principles,  Values

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Withstand temptation by watching it mindfully

• Just go into the room, sit in the centre of the room, open the doors and windows, and see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat.  You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.  Ajahn Chah
• Mindfulness can help all sorts of temptation and addiction, from food cravings to shopping addiction, substance abuse, and Internet porn.  Dr Christopher Walsh
• Mindfulness

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Withstand temptation through silence

• What a strange power there is in silence! How many resolutions are formed, how many sublime conquests effected, during that pause when the lips are closed, and the soul secretly feels the eye of her Maker upon her!  They are the strong ones who know how to keep silence when it is a pain and a grief unto them, and who give time to their own souls to wax strong against temptation.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Silence

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Withstand temptation through small, consistent acts of self- control

• Other studies have found that committing to any small, consistent act of self- control can increase overall willpower. And while these small self-control exercises may seem inconsequential, they appear to improve the willpower challenges we care about most, including focusing at work, taking good care of our health, resisting temptation, and feeling more in control of our emotions. Kelly McGonigal
• Self-control

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Withstand temptation through prayer

• Temptation is stronger in the minds of people who are in doubt. Prayer makes it weaker. Toba Beta
• Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Bible, Matthew 26:41
• Prayer

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Withstand temptation through exercise

• There are temptations which strong exercise best enables us to resist. John Lubbock
• Exercise

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Withstand temptation through self-knowledge

• Self-knowledge is better than self-control any day,” Raquel said firmly. “And I know myself well enough to know how I act around cookies. Claudia Gray
• Self-knowledge

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Withstand temptation with the help of others

• Human decision-making is complex. On our own, our tendency to yield to short-term temptations, and even to addictions, may be too strong for our rational, long-term planning. Peter Singer

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Some argue for withstanding temptation by reducing desire …

• As a man purifies his heart, temptation ceases, for when a certain unlawful desire has been taken out of the heart, the object which formerly appealed to it can no longer do so, but becomes dead and powerless, for there is nothing left in the heart that can respond to it. James Allen
• The source and cause of all temptation is in the inward desire; that being purified or eliminated, outward objects and extraneous powers are utterly powerless to move the soul to sin or to temptation. James Allen
• Desire

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… while others warn this comes at too great a price

• There are those who say that temptation can be barricaded beyond the door. The ones who think that stray desires can be driven out of the heart like the moneychangers from the temple. Maybe they can, if you patrol your weak points day and night, don’t look, don’t smell, don’t dream. Jeanette Winterson

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Each day, ask yourself what temptations you resisted

• 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 abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift. Seneca

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Here are some common temptations to watch out for

• The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. Thomas Merton
• The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason. T. S. Eliot
• I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. Abraham Maslow
• Which of us can resist the temptation of being thought indispensable? Margaret Atwood
• Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue. William Shakespeare
• The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. Thomas Merton
• When I am able to resist the temptation to judge others, I can see them as teachers of forgiveness in my life, reminding me that I can only have peace of mind when I forgive rather than judge. Gerald Jampolsky
• 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
• Secrecy sets barriers between men, but at the same time offers the seductive temptation to break through the barriers by gossip or confession. Georg Simmel
• The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality. James A. Michener
• What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don’t want to discourage it completely. Franklin P. Jones
• Before speaking, consult your inner-truth barometer, and resist the temptation to tell people only what they want to hear. Wayne Dyer
• Never complain, never explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses. Brian Tracy
• It is not only easier to find fault with another person than to examine one’s own character, it is also tempting. Martin Dansky
• 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
• Never underestimate the power of temptation to disarm your better senses. Throughout the ages good people surrendered their honor for the empty promise that wealth or power would bring fulfillment and their dignity, good name and self-esteem for the passing pleasures of sex and drugs. Michael Josephson
• Power was my weakness and my temptation. K. Rowling
• Knowing was a temptation. What you don’t know won’t tempt you. Margaret Atwood

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Prohibition is the friend of temptation

• There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable. Mark Twain
• We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation. William Hazlitt

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Idleness is the friend of temptation

• 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
• Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. Charles H. Spurgeon
• Remove the temptation of idleness and cupids bow is useless. Ovid
• Idleness

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Will power is the enemy of temptation

• The biggest enemies of willpower are temptation, self-criticism, and stress. These three skills —self- awareness, self- care, and remembering what matter most— are the foundation for self- control.  Kelly McGonigal
• Will power

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Abstinence is the enemy of temptation

• Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. John Dryden
• It is easier to stay out than get out. Mark Twain

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Age is the enemy of temptation

• Middle age is having a choice between two temptations and choosing the one that’ll get you home earlier. Dan Bennett
• Middle age is when you’re faced with two temptations and you choose the one that will get you home by 9 o’clock. Ronald Reagan
• When the problem is not so much resisting temptation as finding it, you may just be getting older.
• Don’t worry about avoiding temptation – as you grow older, it starts avoiding you.

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In the context of religion, temptation is the inclination towards sin and “evil ways”

• God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil, than in many formal prayers. William Penn
• Every temptation is an opportunity to triumph over evil. Marc Williams
• No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from. George Eliot
• ‘Tis no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome. William Penn
• You must learn that if you are a Christian, you will without a doubt experience all kinds of opposition and evil inclinations in the flesh. For when you have faith, there will be a hundred more evil thoughts and a hundred more temptations than before. Martin Luther

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It is common to blame temptation on the devil

• Get thee behind me, Satan! C. Cast
• Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in. Billy Sunday
• Frequent and violent temptations were a proof that the citadel of the soul had not fallen and that the devil raged to make it fall. James Joyce
• The Devil’s subtlest temptations are the ones you yield to without even knowing you’ve given in. Glen Duncan
• Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I’m not sure that man needs the help.
• Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to. Martin Luther

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We are never tempted beyond what we can bear

• God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:13

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You can’t be said to be good unless you’ve defeated the temptation to be bad

• People couldn’t become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked. Terry Pratchett
• None are known to be good, till they have opportunity to be bad. Benjamin Whichcote
• He who is not tempted, what does he know? And he who is not tried, what are the things he knows? Ecclesiasticus (Bible)

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• Virtue is insufficient temptation. George Bernard Shaw
• Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue. William Shakespeare
• Saintliness is also a temptation. Jean Anouilh

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• Choices enable temptation. Toba Beta
• Do you really think … that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one’s life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not — there is no weakness in that. Oscar Wilde
• I wonder if pain comes from surrendering or resisting? Donna Lynn Hope
• No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that in his heart which is capable of responding to it. James Allen
• Not all that tempts your wandering eyes And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all that glisters gold. Thomas Gray
• What can you ever really know of other people’s souls – of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. S. Lewis
• ‘Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall. William Shakespeare
• Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction. John Owen
• Temptation wrings integrity even as the thumbscrew twists a man’s fingers. Chinese Proverbs
• 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
• Tempt not a desperate man. William Shakespeare
• Moralists and philosophers have adjudged those who throw temptation in the way of the erring, equally guilty with those who are thereby led into evil. Mark Twain
• Can a moment of madness make up for an age of consent? Basil Bunting
• No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object. Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
• We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass. Samuel Johnson
• The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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• About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you’re fighting temptation. Tom Wilson
• Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. Ambrose Bierce
• Temptation is a woman’s weapon and man’s excuse. L. Mencken
• Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified? Chuck Palahniuk
• Always yield to temptation because it may not pass your way again.  Proverb
• Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. Mae West
• Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I’m not sure that man needs the help. Bill Watterson
• Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.  Fortune cookie
• Do not worry about avoiding temptation; as you grow older it will avoid you.  Joey Adams
• Don’t tempt me I can resist anything but temptation.  Oscar Wilde
• Don’t worry about avoiding temptation – as you grow older it starts avoiding you.
• Eunuch: One who is cut off from temptation.
• I can resist everything but temptation. Oscar Wilde
• I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.  Mae West
• If opportunity came disguised as temptation, one knock would be enough. Lane Olinghouse
• Lawyer: One who protects us against robbery by taking away the temptation.  L. Mencken
• Lead me not into temptation – I can find the way myself.  Rita Mae Brown
• Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we’ll find it. Sam Levenson
• Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.  George Bernard Shaw
• Middle age is having a choice between two temptations and you choosing the one that’ll get you home earlier.  Dan Bennett
• Middle age is when you’re faced with two temptations and you choose the one that will get you home by 9 o’clock.  Ronald Reagan
• Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.  Robert Orben
• Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart. William Shakespeare
• Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up a sound set of values – and witnesses.  Franklin Jones
• Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell.
• Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.  L. Mencken
• Temptation: Something which, when resisted, gives happiness and which, when yielded to, gives even greater happiness.
• The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.  Oscar Wilde
• The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. Will Rogers
• The trouble with resisting temptation is it may never come your way again.  Korman’s Conclusion
• There are several good protections against temptations but the surest is cowardice.  Mark Twain
• Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.  Lane Olinghouse
• Virtue is insufficient temptation.  George Bernard Shaw
• What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don’t want to discourage it completely.  Franklin Jones

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