Thomas a Kempis Quotes

'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

Everyone deals with temptation. It's just there.

No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it.

Many men and women in the world demonstrate great willpower and self-discipline in overcoming bad habits and the weaknesses of the flesh.

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

Temptation to behave is terrible.

It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

Good people struggle against what's imperfect about them. The people that we call 'bad' people embrace that kind of stuff, embrace the darker side.

My whole life, I've been a Temptation.

Will is not unfrequently weakness.

Reflect upon the defects of your character: thoroughly realize their evils and the transient pleasures they give you, and firmly will that you shall try your best not to yield to them the next time.

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good...Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.

Sometimes it seems to me that all of life is a struggle to contain the natural impulses of the body and spirit, and that what we call character represents only the degree to which we are successful in this endeavor.

There are those who say that temptation can be barricaded beyond the door. The ones who think that stray desires can be driven out of the heart like the moneychangers from the temple. Maybe they can, if you patrol your weak points day and night, don't look, don't smell, don't dream.

It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.

The biggest obstacle to people becoming better is that you have to really want to be a good person in order to be a better person, and most people would rather be other things.

Courage is not always about action. It takes courage to do nothing rather than do something that you do not believe in or understand.

It's hard to stay true to yourself and what you want in life when there are so many distractions and so much craziness going on around you.

We are never like angels till our passion dies.

Terrible is the fight put up by the senses. Fight bravely! Conquer them you must.