Anthony McCarten

There's a really fine line between artistic license and artistic licentiousness. And history is a lousy filmmaker. It doesn't give you all the ingredients you need. No story will quite fulfill that three-act structure.

New Zealander Novelist

James Q. Wilson

Without Liberty, Law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without Law, Liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.

American Politician

Norman Rockwell

Everyone in those days expected that art students were wild, licentious characters. We didn't know how to be, but we sure were anxious to learn.

American Artist

Jeremy Collier

Idleness is an inlet to disorder, and makes way for licentiousness. People who have nothing to do are quickly tired of their own company.

English Clergyman

Denis Diderot

Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.

French Editor

Fisher Ames

The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.

American Statesman

Tom Sizemore

Although my mother and father were both completely legit, it was all around me, this crime and licentiousness.

American Actor

George Washington

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

American President

Harriet Ann Jacobs

The slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear.

American Writer

Jonathan Mayhew

There are men who strike at liberty under the term licentiousness.

American Clergyman

Licentious has a negative connotation, implying excessive freedom that is morally wrong or offensive.

Negative Connotation

Historically, 'licentious' was often used to describe rulers or the elite who misused their power for pleasure.

Historical Usage

Don't confuse 'licentious' with 'licensed'; one implies moral disapproval, while the other means having permission.

Avoid Confusion

In literary contexts, 'licentious' often labels work as scandalous or shocking due to sexual content.

Literary Context

Licentious works can lead to controversy, censorship, or banning, especially in conservative cultures.

Controversial Art

Knowing the tone 'licentious' sets can help in comprehending the mood or theme of a literary piece.

Understanding Tone

 “a whore who sang about her own licentiousness.” Later, a Pope and Archbishop ordered her poetry burned. Almost all of it had vanished by the Middle Ages. Then, about a century ago, people began rediscovering Sappho’s poetry—

The surprising origins...

 Because there were images in it he said were licentious. The display was a photo. Men and women stripped naked, some trying to cover their genitals, others too frightened to bother, lined up in snow