#temptation

The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry. ↗

— Henry A. Kissinger

#believe #foreign #foreign policy #policy #psychiatry

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 abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift. ↗

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca

#account #acquired #brought #call #day

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

#between #break #confession #gossip #men

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

#complex #decision-making #even #human #long-term

Temptation is impossible for me to resist... Come on. This is Hollywood. It's in the job description. ↗

— Tom Sizemore

#description #hollywood #impossible #job #job description

The whole mystery of temptation is to have sins suggested to us, and to be swept after them by a sudden enthusiasm, which sometimes feels as strong as the Spirit of God ever made in us the enthusiasm for virtue. ↗

— George A. Smith

#enthusiasm #ever #feels #god #made

(Hadley and Mary in the carriage) “Might I repeat how utterly charming you look?” “You are very kind,” she replied, down casting her eyes as a flash of heat invaded her cheeks. “But even if I were dressed in the finest of gowns, I could never be a lady of fashion.” “Never let that disturb you, my pet.” He fingered a mass of curls that had settled over her shoulder just above the expanse of her modestly covered bosom. “I find fashion and beauty are rarely synonymous.” When he caressed a stray lock between thumb and fore!nger and raised it to his lips, Mary felt the dizzying sensation from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. ↗

— Victoria Vane

#victoria-vane #beauty

The first temptation, upon meeting an old friend after many years, is always to - look the other way. ↗

— Ugo Betti

#always #first #friend #look #many

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. ... We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#temptation

But a good wife—a good unworldly woman—may really help a man, and keep him more independent. ↗

— George Eliot

#temptation #life