Inspirational Quotes on Temptation

“We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.”

“Ahab cast a covetous eye at Naboth's vineyard, David a lustful eye at Bathsheba. The eye is the pulse of the soul; as physicians judge of the heart by the pulse, so we by the eye; a rolling eye, a roving heart. The good eye keeps minute time, and strikes when it should; the lustful, crochet-time, and so puts all out of tune.”

“When you have overcome one temptation, you must be ready to enter the lists with another. As distrust, in some sense, is the mother of safety, so security is the gate of danger.”

“The only way to avoid cannon-shot is to fall down. No such way to be freed from temptation as to keep low.”

“Satan doth sow most of his seed of temptation in hearts that lie fallow. When he sees persons unemployed, he will find work for them to do.”

“Satan doth not tempt God's children because they have sin in them, but because they have grace in them. Had they no grace, the devil would not disturb them... Though to be tempted is a trouble, yet to think why you are tempted is a comfort.”

“The flesh inclines us more to believe a temptation than a promise.”

“The devil tempts, that he may deceive; but God suffers us to be tempted, to try us. Temptation is a trial of our sincerity.”

“There is a great deal of difference between falling into a temptation, and running into a temptation. The falling into a temptation shall work for good, not the running into it. He that falls into a river is capable of help and pity, but he that desperately turns into it is guilty of his own death.”

“Being virtuous is no feat once temptation ceases.”

“It is true that Satan often uses the flesh to secure the consent of man, yet in each instance of enticement the enemy creates some kind of thought by which to induce the man. We cannot separate temptation and thought. All temptations are offered us in the form of thoughts. Since the latter are so exposed to the power of darkness, we need to learn how to guard them.”

“God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.”

“If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it. No man is compelled to evil: his consent only makes it his. It is no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome.”

“Temptations are an appeal to meet righteous needs in an unrighteous way.”

“Deliver us from everything that may entangle our affections and harden our hearts.”

“Tomorrow's character is made out of today's thoughts. Temptation may come suddenly, but sin doesn't.”

“The strongest Christian is unsafe among occasions to sin (519).”

“When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.”

“Man does not live by bread alone.”

“Ignoring a temptation is far more effective than fighting.”