“A man who has throttled a bad impulse has at least some consolation in his agonies, but a man who has throttled a good one is in a bad way indeed.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
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H.L. Mencken 281
American journalist and writer 1880–1956Related quotes

“No one deserves to live who has not at least one good-man-and-true for a friend.”
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus

“4912. There is no Man so bad, but has a secret Respect for the good.”
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1747) : There is no Man so bad, but he secretly respects the good.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.”
Bk. I, ch. 4.
1830s, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834)

the Lutheran
Paradísarheimt (Paradise Reclaimed) (1960)

“Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.”
James Harrington in The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)
Misattributed

“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life to be thankful for a good one.”

“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one.”