But Denethor did want the Ring and was furious with Faramir for not bringing it to him. Okay, he may have fooled himself into believing he could hold it unused, (Gandalf knew better!) but he most definitely did want it, and he should have known better. But then so should Saruman.
Boromir did try to take the Ring but he also repented almost immediately, and managed to free himself from its hold. Faramir refused the Ring but then he didn't have it working on him for three or four months, undermining his resistance.
Boromir was heir to a land under threat, a land that needed a great captain not a philosopher king for its leader, (at least in Denethor's opinion). Undoubtedly he was strongly encouraged to concentrate on arms and the arts of war and any tendencies he may have had towards scholarship equally firmly discouraged. Faramir on the other hand, as the younger son, was freer to follow his own inclinations.
Boromir's apparent onesidedness was the result of nurture, not nature.
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