Seduction

Seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person, to lead astray, as from duty, rectitude, or the like; to corrupt, to persuade or induce to engage in sexual behaviour. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "to lead astray". As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation.

Quotes

Challenge, and not desire, lies at the heart of seduction.
- Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communication, pp. 57-59 (1987)

Seduction is the world’s elementary dynamic… All this has changed significantly for us, at least in appearance. For what has happened to good and evil? Seduction hurls them against one another, and unites them beyond meaning, in a paroxysm [sudden outbreak of emotion] of intensity and charm.
- Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communication, pp. 57-59 (1987)

Distinctive signs, full signs, never seduce us.
- Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communication, pp. 57-59 (1987)

When Jimmy Walker was minority leader of the New York legislature, there was a censorship fight on the floor of the House. A powerful group of pious bluenoses wanted to bar from circulation good books that dared to mention certain well-known facts of life. The bluenoses said the books were indecent, bawdy, lascivious and would lead their young and innocent daughters astray. Jimmy stood the debate as long as he could, then he said, "I have been around a good deal, but I have never heard of a woman's being seduced by a book." That killed the censorship bill.
- Humphrey Bogart, “Censorship: Jimmy Walker Never Heard of a Book Seducing a Dame but Bluenoses are Still on the Trail of our Films”, Hollywood Reporter, (Oct 1941); republished in “When Humphrey Bogart Tackled Movie Censorship in 1941”, Hollywood Reporter, (2/27/2018).

Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,
And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.
- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto I, Stanza 9

I like clothes and I like seduction in general, but I am like that with everybody.
- Penélope Cruz, Cinema.com interview (2001)

A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.
- Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (1980)

Sadness of any sort is also seductive, particularly if it seems deep-rooted, even spiritual, rather than needy or pathetic—it makes people come to you.
- Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction (2001)

Your greatest power in seduction is your ability to turn away, to make others come after you, delaying their satisfaction.
- Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction (2001)

Seduction is a game of psychology, not beauty, and it is within the grasp of any person to become a master at the game. All that is required is that you look at the world.
- Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction (2001)

Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves.
- Hippocrates, Oath of Hippocrates (c. 400 BC)

In the game of seduction, There is only one rule: Never fall in love.
- Roger Kumble, Cruel Intentions (1999).

Moderates and liberals are not immune to the theory's seductive charms—especially when it gives them a chance to lecture others on their failings.
- Paul Krugman, "The Hangover Theory", Slate (Dec. 4, 1998)

But ne'er to a seductive lay let faith be given;
Nor deem that "light that leads astray" is light from Heaven.
- William Wordsworth, To the Sons of Burns.