#temptation

I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. ↗

— Harper Lee

#temptation

Sometimes, looking at the many books I have at home, I feel I shall die before I come to the end of them, yet I cannot resist the temptation of buying new books. Whenever I walk into a bookstore and find a book on one of my hobbies — for example, Old English or Old Norse poetry — I say to myself, “What a pity I can’t buy that book, for I already have a copy at home. ↗

— Jorge Luis Borges

#book-collecting #poetry #temptation

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor. ↗

— Ring Lardner

#big #big enough #come #editor #enclosing

That free will was demonstrated in the placing of temptation before man with the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree which would give him a knowledge of good and evil, with the disturbing moral conflict to which that awareness would give rise. ↗

— Kenneth Scott Latourette

#before #command #conflict #demonstrated #disturbing

Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body. ↗

— H. L. Mencken

#force #irresistible #movable #temptation #work

I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology, and we should resist the temptation, which sometimes scientists give in to, to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science. ↗

— John Polkinghorne

#assimilate #concepts #cosmology #creation #different

It is a temptation for me to wear all my rings at once. ↗

— Anna Held

#once #rings #temptation #wear

There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted. ↗

— James Branch Cabell

#less #memory #resisted #satisfaction #some

The very good people did not convince me; I felt they'd never been tempted. But you knew; you understood; you felt the world outside tugging at one with all its golden hands - and you hated the things it asked of one; you hated happiness bought by disloyalty and cruelty and indifference. That was what I'd never known before - and it's better than anything I've known. ↗

— Edith Wharton

#responsibility #temptation #age

I have a deep appreciation for anything that challenges my morality. I tend to wonder which thing or person might overpower my beliefs and would I avoid it altogether in order to say, "It didn't conquer me," or would I accept the challenge head-on in an attempt to prevail? Which requires greater courage? ↗

— Donna Lynn Hope

#courage #temptation #courage