What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don’t want to discourage it completely.

Franklin P. Jones was a mid‑20th‑century American humorist and columnist whose one‑liners circulated widely in newspapers and quotation columns. This remark belongs to that tradition of wry, moral-psychological observation: it treats “temptation” not as an external force but as something people half‑invite. The line is typically presented as a standalone aphorism rather than tied to a specific speech or narrative scene, suggesting it was crafted for syndication or reuse in humor/quotation features where brief, punchy reversals were prized.

The quip reframes “temptation” as something people half-enjoy and therefore secretly nurture. Resisting is hard not only because the desire is strong, but because the person doesn’t fully want it gone; they want the thrill of proximity without the consequences. Jones’s humor exposes a common form of self-sabotage: we keep the door cracked open—maintaining habits, environments, or rationalizations that preserve the option to indulge—while telling ourselves we’re committed to restraint. The line’s sting is its implication that moral struggle is often compromised by ambivalence, not merely weakness.