In the realm of literary mavericks and countercultural icons, few names shine as brightly as that of Hunter S. Thompson. Renowned for his fearless and unapologetic approach to journalism and writing, Thompson left an indelible mark on the world of literature and journalism. In this collection, we will journey through a curated selection of "Hunter S. Thompson Quotes," each offering a glimpse into the irreverent brilliance and unapologetic honesty that defined his work and continue to resonate with those who seek to question, explore, and uncover the truths of our world.
Hunter S. Thompson Quotes (2024)
Hunter S. Thompson's words are a wild ride through the chaotic landscape of his unique perspective, revealing a world where rebellion, insight, and unabashed authenticity reign supreme. In this compilation of distinctive "Hunter S. Thompson Quotes," we dive headfirst into the mind of the legendary Gonzo journalist and writer, where every sentence is a journey through the uncharted territories of counterculture, politics, and the human psyche:
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a ride!'"
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
"We can't stop here; this is bat country!"
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
"Good people drink good beer."
"The edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."
"Fear is just another word for ignorance."
"You can't find any true closeness in Hollywood because everybody does the fake closeness so well."
"When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail."
"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride… and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well… maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten."
"It never got weird enough for me."
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
"I don't advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."
"A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance."
"I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed."
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used."
"Weird heroes and mold-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final."
"When things get bad enough, then something happens to correct the course. And it's for that reason that I speak about what I perceive to be a very real impending danger, and that's what motivates me."
"The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane."
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. But rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming… 'Wow! What a ride!'"
"I was not proud of what I had learned, but I never doubted that it was worth knowing."
"I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs, or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me."
"Some may never live, but the crazy never die."
"It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die."
"You better take care of me Lord, if you don't, you're gonna have me on your hands."
"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers… and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls."
"Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing."
"For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled."
"It's a weird scene. You win a few baseball games and all of a sudden you're surrounded by reporters and TV men with cameras asking you about Vietnam and race relations."
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'"
"We can't stop here; this is bat country."
"When the tough get going, the weird turn pro."
"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten."
"When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
"A word to the wise is infuriating."
"In my heart, I am a lazy, unimaginative, and unambitious lump. Perhaps I will get a job."
"Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect."
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge."
"To make the public believe that this was the work of a crazed man was impossible. To make the public believe that this was the work of a disciplined conspiracy was equally impossible."
"There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge."
"I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes."
"Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final."
"It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it."
"It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top."
"There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment."
"We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness."
"Too weird to live, too rare to die!"
"You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when it's waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eye."
"I am a Doctor of Journalism. My job is to tell the truth."
"Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death."
"The Edge…there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up."
"The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs."
"I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
"Politics is the art of controlling your environment."
"In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile, and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely."
"Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex."
"I don't have a fear of heights. I do, however, have a fear of falling from heights."
"I've never seen a person unhappy when they were doing something they loved."
"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers… and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can."
"No more games. No more bombs. No more walking. No more fun. No more swimming. 67. "If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up."
"We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws."
"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."
"When you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can."
"I have learned, in my life and in my work as a journalist, that big questions and big answers are too hard to find. Small questions and small answers are better."
"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."
"You better take care of me Lord, if you don't you're gonna have me on your hands."
"Maybe there is no Heaven. Or maybe this is all pure gibberish—a product of the demented imagination of a lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate who has found a way to live out where the real winds blow—to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested."
"Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life."
"To make a point, you must first have a point."
"In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely."
"A man who has blown all his options can't afford the luxury of changing his ways. He has to capitalize on whatever he has left, and he can't afford to admit—no matter how often he's reminded of it—that every day of his life takes him farther down a blind alley."
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
"It's like trying to describe what you feel when you're standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon or remembering your first love or the birth of your child. You have to be there to really know what it's like."
"I'm not worried about the survival of the novel. In the minds of its current practitioners, it's already dead. Among its only friends are those who kill it to save it, or who repudiate it as an irrelevance or an imposture."
"We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness."
"The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage."
"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."
"It's a nation of sheep, and someone else owns the grass."
"We can't stop here, this is bat country!"
"I'm a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon, perhaps, but certainly not dangerous."
"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is doing is worse than you imagine."
"A little bit of this town goes a very long way. After five days in Vegas, you feel like you've been here for five years."
"In some circles, the Mint 400 is a far, far better thing than the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, and the Lower Oakland Roller Derby Finals all rolled into one."
"No more games. No more bombs. No more walking. No more fun. No more swimming. 67. "The only cure for paranoia is real politics."
"We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way."
"Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives… and to the 'good life,' whatever it is and wherever it happens to be."
"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely."
"We must make the best of those things that are in our power, and take the rest as nature gives it."
"I'm 50, and I feel like I'm just starting. It's really a good time in my life now."
"When you hit a wall—of your own imagined limitations—just kick it in."
"Never turn your back on a drug."
"I'm not going to sit at the same table as violent criminals and terrorists."
"To make a point, you must first have a point."
"We must make the best of those things that are in our power, and take the rest as nature gives it."
As we navigate the complexities of our own lives and the ever-changing landscape of the world around us, we can draw inspiration from Hunter S. Thompson's unapologetic approach to storytelling and his fearless exploration of the unknown. His quotes serve as a reminder that in a world often defined by conformity, embracing our uniqueness and questioning the established norms can lead to profound insights and personal growth. The legacy of "Hunter S. Thompson Quotes" endures as a call to authenticity, an invitation to challenge the boundaries of conventional thinking, and a reminder that sometimes, the most transformative journeys begin with a simple act of defiance against the expected.
