thoughts?

"no man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

 a silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means, 

this is an obvious lie. 

only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.

 after all, you find out the strength of the German army

 by fighting against it, not by giving in.

 you find out the strength of a wind 

by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. 

a man who gives in to temptation after five minutes,

 simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.

 that is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness.

 they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. 

we never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it"

interesting. i dont know if i necessarily believe in this quote but i certainly found it interesting.... my thoughts about this have always been, there is not testimony without a test. how do you know that something feels right, if you have felt something wrong before? how do you know happiness if you have never been sad. how can you call yourself grateful, if you feel you have lived without. this quote makes sense to me though, what are your thoughts on it? i would be interested to know!