Quote
"Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours, that are but skin-deep."
T
Temptation"We must bear in mind, however, that nothing else happens to us as a result of these good or evil thoughts which are suggested to our heart but a mere agitation and excitement which urges us on to deeds either of good or of evil. It is possible for us, when an evil power has begun to urge us on to a deed of evil, to cast away the wicked suggestions and to resist the low enticements and to do absolutely nothing worthy of blame; and it is possible on the other hand when a divine power has urged us on to better things not to follow its guidance, since our faculty of free will is preserved to us in either case. p.283-284"
Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.
"Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours, that are but skin-deep."
"I may not here omit those two main plagues, and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people: they go commonly together."
"But Satan now is wiser than of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor."
"Bell, book and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on."
"Most dangerous Is that temptation that doth goad us on To sin in loving virtue."
"The suprahuman temptation will pile up over a person; like the sheep mountain that makes the hiker despair, so the suprahuman temptation will frighten the sufferer, transform him into a creeping thing in comparison with the size of the temptation. Just as a force of nature mocks human effort, so suprahuman temptation, haughtily swaggering, will be proud, like mockery at the poor sufferer. But, God be praised, there is no suprahuman temptation; there is only a mendacious fable invented by a pusillanimous or a crafty person who wants to shove guilt away from himself, to minimize his guilt by magnifying the temptation, to justifying himself by making it suprahuman. Scripture says the very opposite; it not only says that there is no suprahuman temptation, but in another place where it is speaking of the horror of which the anticipation would make people faint, it says to the believers, “When this happens, raise your heads.” (1 Cor 10.13, Luke 21.28)"