Fordim has made a good case for Gandalf, and I'd like to try and add to it a bit.
In TTT, The White Rider, Gandalf says-
Quote:
"War is upon us and all our friends, a war in which only the use of the Ring could give us surety of victory....'
He rose and gazed out eastward, shading his eyes, as if he saw things far away that none of them could see. Then he shook his head. 'No', he said in a soft voice, 'it has gone beyond our reach. Of that at least let us be glad. We can no longer be tempted to use the Ring.
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It seems to me that a part of him wishes the Ring was still around, just in case. That's how Gandalf's temptation would begin, correct? It would start as
better not let the Ring get too far away- just in case, and then when crossing into Mordor in would move to
don't take the Ring, but be ready to grab it- just in case, and by the time Gandalf got to Mount Doom the voice might be saying
you know Frodo won't be able to destroy it when he gets there- he couldn't even throw it into his fireplace in the Shire. You had better take it now.
And since, as
Fordim said, Gandalf's purpose is to counter Sauron, I imagine that being in the heart of Mordor and feeling the massive weight of Sauron's power, Gandalf would be extremely tempted to do something to boost his own power in an attempt to match his opponent.
And when Gandalf says "only the use of the Ring could give us surety of victory", isn't he showing the influence the Ring has on him? I will explain.
In Tolkien's letter 246 where he talks about good guys using the Ring to beat Sauron, he states that the Ring purposefully made people think they could be more powerful than truly possible (think of Gollum, Galadriel, and Sam's temptation). Tolkien does not give Galadriel much of a chance of winning force versus force and no chance whatsoever of winning one on one and actually destroying Sauron (JRRT said one-on-one was not even contemplated). The only person he mentioned that
might win was Gandalf, and it was far from being a guarantee, which clearly means that the Ring would
not give "surety of victory".
And so, when Gandalf makes his "surety" statement he is showing his temptation to use the Ring, because he is placing more faith in it than he should. It has become overly valuable to him.