Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity than straigthforward and simple integrity in another. A knave would rather quarrel with a brother knave than with a fool, but he would rather avoid a quarrel with one honest man than with both. He can combat a fool by management and address, and he can conquer a knave by temptations. But the honest man is neither to be bamboozled nor bribed.
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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. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
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You can t, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty. And least of all can you condemn an artist pursuing, however humbly and imperfectly, a creative aim. In that interior world where his thought and his emotions go seeking for the experience of imagined adventures, there are no policemen, no law, no pressure of circumstance or dread of opinion to keep him within bounds. Who then is going to say Nay to his temptations if not his conscience?
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Temptations, when we first meet them, are like a lion that roared at Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a nest of honey within them.
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Jesus' ministry was clearly defined, and the alternatives to the illusion and temptations of the desert were spelled out. A choice was made--life abundant, full, and free for all. Make no mistake about it, the day that choice was made, Jesus became suspect. That day in the temple he sealed the fate already prepared for him. How was the world to understand one who rejected an offer of power and control
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People who are born even-tempered, placid and untroubled -- secure from violent passions or temptations to evil -- those who have never needed to struggle all night with the Angel to emerge lame but victorious at dawn, never become great saints.
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We are mindful that the tight natural gas supplies could create temptations for improper behavior by some market participants.
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Instead of solid accomplishments, the man pursues pleasures and self-gratification. He will never achieve anything so long as he is surrounded by dissipating temptations.
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Spare minutes are the Gold-dust of time; the portions of life most fruitful in good and evil; the gaps through which temptations enter.
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It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
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Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
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Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you many second chances.
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1 Peter 1:6:
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
(NIV)
[You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations,
(AMP)
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
(KJV)
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James 1:2:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds
(NIV)
Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.
(AMP)
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
(KJV)
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Do you really think, Arthur, 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.
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Luke 17:1:
Jesus said to his disciples: 'Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.'
(NIV)
AND [Jesus] said to His disciples, Temptations (snares, traps set to entice to sin) are sure to come, but woe to him by or through whom they come!
(AMP)
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
(KJV)
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If we have Senators and Congressmen there that can't protect themselves against the evil temptations of lobbyists, we don't need to change our lobbies, we need to change our representatives
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Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.
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There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
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