"If you think you can't fall into sexual sin, then you are godlier than David, stronger than Samson and wiser than Solomon." Bill Perkins, founder and president of the Million Mighty Men and teaching pastor at Coast Hills Community Church in McMinnville, Oregon.
"God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil, than in many formal prayers." William Penn, 16th/17th century religious and political leader credited with being the founding father of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, quoted from his work Some Fruits of Solitude
"Temptations are enemies outside the castle seeking entrance. If there be no false retainer within who holds treacherous parley, there can scarcely be even an offer." Henry Ward Beecher, prominent 19th century Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer and abolitionist, as quoted from his work, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
"The most formidable attribute of temptation is its increasing power, its accelerating ratio of velocity. Every act of repetition increases power, diminishes resistance. It is like the letting out of waters--where a drop can go, a river can go. Whoever yields to temptation, subjects himself to the law of falling bodies." Horace Mann, 19th century education reformer and politician, as quoted from his work, Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann
"None are known to be good, till they have opportunity to be bad." Benjamin Whichcote, 17th century British clergyman, quoted from his work, Moral and Religious Aphorisms
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it. " Mae West, 20th century American actress, playwright, screenwriter
"For years my wedding ring has done its job. It has led me not into temptation. It has reminded my husband numerous times at parties that it's time to go home. It has been a source of relief to a dinner companion. It has been a status symbol in the maternity ward." Erma Bombeck, 20th century American writer and humorist
"The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason." T. S. Eliot, 20th century American/British poet, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic
"About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you're fighting temptation." unknown
"We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are." Thomas a Kempis, 15th century priest, monk, and devotional writer
"Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty." Earl Wilson, 19th century American journalist/columnist
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful." Oscar Wilde, 19th century Irish/English poet, playwright, novelist, quoted from his work The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2.
"Do you really think ... 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. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not -- there is no weakness in that." Oscar Wilde, 19th century Irish/English poet, playwright, novelist, quoted from his work An Ideal Husband
"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it." C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), English writer, lay theologian, and Christian apologist best known for his works Mere Christianity and Chronicles of Narnia
Many of the above quotes provide their own points of application. They do not necessarily represent the views of Orthodox Christianity; neither do they necessarily represent the views of Illustration Exchange.