Temptation- christiansquoting.org.uk

All the water in the world, however hard it tries, can never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside, and all the evil in the world, the blackest kind of sin, can never hurt you in the least, unless you let it in.

If you have been tempted into evil, fly from it. It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.

The devil's boots don't creak..

Flee temptation and don´t leave a forwarding address.

The stomach is easier filled than the eye. -- German Proverb

My soul is more at rest from the tempter when I am busily employed. --Francis Asbury

Whatever good is to be attained, struggle is necessary. So do not fear temptations, but rejoice in them, for they lead to achievement. God helps and protects you. St. Barsanuphius

The heart of man is revealed in temptation. Man knows his sin, which without temptation he could never have known; for in temptation man knows on what he has set his heart. The coming to light of sin is the work of the accuser, who thereby thinks to have won the victory. But it is sin which is become manifest which can be known, and therefore forgiven. Thus the manifestation of sin belongs to the salvation plan of God with man, and Satan must serve this plan.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Temptation

Only he who flings himself upward when the pull comes to drag him down, can hope to break the force of temptation. Temptation may be an invitation to hell, but much more is it an opportunity to reach heaven. At the moment of temptation, sin and righteousness are both very near the Christian; but, of the two, the latter is the nearer.... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929)

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself. --Rita Mae Brown

Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon,
That shall eat with a fend.
Chaucer
Full wise is he that can himselven know. -- Chaucer The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.

The devil is always suggesting that we compromise our high calling by substituting the good in place of the best. --William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924- ) _Credo_ [2004], "Life In General"

Unwillingness to accept God's "way of escape" from temptation frightens me - what a rebel yet resides within.-- JIM ELLIOT

As the Sandwich-Islander believes that the strength and valour of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptations we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson

She was a weak woman - too highly elated in prosperity, too easily depressed by adversity - not considering that both are situations of trial .
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) "Walter Wilson," in "Sketches of American Character," 1829.

No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good. There is a silly idea about that good people don't know what temptation means.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) The Screwtape Letters

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him,for he cannot bear scorn. Martin Luther

In the worst temptations nothing can help us but faith that God's Son has put on flesh, is bone, sits at the right hand of the Father, and prays for us. There is no mightier comfort.--Martin Luther

Almost every night when I wake up the devil is there and wants to dispute with me. I have come to this conclusion: When the argument that the Christian is without the law and above the law doesn't help, I instantly chase him away with a fart.--Martin Luther (1483-1546), Luther's Works, Volume 54, Table Talk_ [1967], Number 469)

In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. But by all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. Therefore, Jerome, joke and play games with your wife and others. In this way you will drive out your diabolical thoughts and take courage
Be of good courage, therefore, and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you with these thoughts, at once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of merriment. Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more, play, jest, or even commit some infraction in defiance and contempt of the devil in order not to give him an opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall be overcome if we worry too much about falling into some sin.
Accordingly if the devil should say, "Do not drink," you should reply to him, "On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount." Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me. --Luther

I know well that when Christ is nearest, Satan also is busiest. --ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE

I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian,--that I have overcome this or that lust so long,--that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace,--so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation--nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. One might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit of resisting fire, so as not to catch spark. As long as powder is wet, it resists the spark; but when it becomes dry, it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, He deadens me to sin, so that, if lawfully called through temptation, I may reckon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh for a sense of this!" -- ROBERT M M'CHEYNE

Subtle he needs must be, who could seduce Angels.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book IX, 307 - 08
The devil... the prowde spirit cannot endure to be mocked. --Thomas More

Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.
John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. 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

Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.... John Owen (1616-1683)

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow -- La Rochefoucauld

One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence. ... Francois de Sales (1567-1622)

It is not we who overcome the world in our own strength. We do not have a power plant inside ourselves that can overcome the world. The overcoming is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have already seen. There can be a victory, a practical victory, if we raise the empty hands of faith moment by moment and accept the gift. „This is the victory that overcometh the world. God has promised, and the Bible has said, that there is a way to escape temptation. By God‚s grace we should want that escape.- Francis Schaeffer

Learn to say "no." It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. -- C.H. SPURGEON

Satan watches for those vessels that sail without convoy. GEORGE SWINNOCK

Forbidden things have a secret charm. --Tacitus

I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much. Mother Teresa

Be not afraid that thou art tempted, for the more thou art assailed by temptations, the greater friend and servant of God do I hold thee, and the greater love do I bear thee. Verily, I say to thee, let no man deem himself the perfect friend of God until he have passed through many temptations and tribulations... I am ready to endure patiently all things that my Lord would do with me.-- Ugolino of Montegiorgio (d.1274), The Little Flowers of St. Francis

How soon are we broken on the soft pillow of ease! Adam in paradise was overcome, when Job on the dunghill was a conqueror. - THOMAS WATSON

It is most desirable, to have neither poverty nor riches; but still you cannot be without temptation, unless you would go out of the world.- John Wesley, letter: DECEMBER 1, 1773

The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life,the stronger the enemy's temptations.----John Wycliffe (?1330-1384) in The Lion Christian Quotation Collection, 1997