On Temptation

“Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”

“Flee from transgression, for one commandment leads to another commandment, and transgression leads to another transgression.”

“In our power are will and all acts which depend on the will; things not in our power are the body, possessions, and generally all with whom we live in society.”

“The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides.”

“Not only do we by abstaining from pleasures come to be perfected in self-mastery, but when we have come to be so we can best abstain from them.”

“I can resist everything except temptation.”

Two hundred adults carried beepers for a week and logged nearly eight thousand desires. Most were ordinary and harmless. It was the ones that collided with a goal that had to be fought, and the fight was often lost.

When the marshmallow test was repeated on a larger and more varied group of children, waiting still predicted later achievement, but at half the original strength, and most of that vanished once family circumstances were accounted for.

Across ninety-four studies, people who decided in advance where, when and how they would act were substantially more likely to follow through. Willpower did less work than the plan did.

“Take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, that thou art not dyed with this dye; for such things happen. Keep thyself then simple, good, pure, serious.”