H. L. Mencken Quotes About Temptation

• Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Badass, Anger

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

• Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Temptation, Weapons

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.620, Vintage

• Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.

  H. L. Mencken

  Work, Temptation, Body

• Lawyer: one who protects us against robbery by taking away the temptation.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Freedom, Temptation

• No man is worthy of unlimited reliance-his treason, at best, only waits for sufficient temptation.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Waiting, Temptation

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.10, Vintage

• The Puritan, of course, is not entirely devoid of aesthetic feeling. He has a taste for good form; he responds to style; he is even capable of something approaching a purely aesthetic emotion. But he fears this aesthetic emotion as an insinuating distraction from his chief business in life: the sober consideration of the all-important problem of conduct. Art is a temptation, a seduction, a Lorelei, and the Good Man may safely have traffic with it when it is broken to moral uses--in other words, when its innocence is pumped out of it, and it is purged of gusto.

  H. L. Mencken

  Art, Men, Broken

  H.L. Mencken (1920). “Prejudices Second Series”

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