Edna O'Brien Quotes

O Master, make me chaste, but not yet!

We may eventually come to realize that chastity is no more a virtue than malnutrition.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

So far as I am concerned, I could not be accused of having set eyes, or having wished to set eyes, upon Darius' wife: on the contrary, I have refused even to listen to those who spoke to me of her beauty.

Listen, one doesn't need to be religious (nor a rocket scientist) to see the value of abstinence.

If you would be chaste, you must be temperate.

Chastity is a virtue with some, but with many it is almost a vice.

The whole idea we have for their chastity is ridiculous. They would have to become numb and invisible to please us. I don't know whether the exploits of Alexander and Caesar really surpass the resolution of a beautiful young woman, bred up in the light and commerce of our society, who still keeps herself whole. There is no doing so hard as not doing.

Put temptation on the unenjoyment line.

Nothing is gained except by sacrifice.... Do not degrade it to the level of the brutes.... Make yourselves decent men! ... Be chaste and pure! ... There is no other way. Did Christ find any other way?

Chastity works better if you don't keep testing it.

A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.

When he was a young man he prayed constantly for chastity; but years later he realized that while his lips had been saying 'Oh Lord, make me chaste,' his heart had been secretly adding, 'But please don't do it just yet.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life.

It is easy enough to be moral after a good dinner beside a snug coal fire, and with our hearts well warmed with fine old port.

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

You oughtn't to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd.

Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.

An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

Temptation to behave is terrible.

Why resist temptation? There will always be more.

Virginity can be lost by a thought.

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

I can resist everything except temptation.