Literary notes about Tempt (AI summary)
The word "tempt" in literature functions as a multifaceted term that conveys both the lure of desire and the cautionary call to resist vice. It often emphasizes a moral or ethical challenge, inviting characters to confront inner conflicts—whether it is warning against straying from one’s duty ([1], [2]) or eliciting a dangerous allure that may derail a chosen path ([3], [4]). At times, the term also takes on a spiritual or theological dimension, as when divine admonitions counsel against provoking the sacred ([5], [6], [7]). Additionally, "tempt" can capture the subtleties of human ambition and attraction, from the delicate enticement of forbidden love ([8], [9]) to the more pragmatic risk of courting fortune or fate ([10], [11]). Such diverse applications highlight its enduring role in articulating the tensions between aspiration, morality, and the inherent peril of overstepping bounds ([12], [13]).
- Where does he tempt one to stray from duty?
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Let nothing tempt you or swerve you a hair's breadth from your aim, and you will win.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, 96 Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, 97
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare - And Peter said unto her: Why have you agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord?
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Tempt not God, sweet friend; but let us into the next room, and there pray for him.
— from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe - Jesus said to him: It is written again: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 4:8.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - If thou unto thy Muse be marryed, Embrace her ever, ever multiply, Be far from me that strange Adulterie To tempt thee and procure her widowhed.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) by John Donne - "And that will tempt YOU, Miss Marianne.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - “On the contrary, it would tempt me were I any other man,” rejoined Aramis; “but I repeat, I am made up of contradictions.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - He wanted to go to Paris and tempt fortune in some of the public gambling-houses that abounded there.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - What terror hath bidden one or another run after arms and tempt the sword?
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil - Now therefore, why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete