Authors:

Hunter S. Thompson Quotes

All Quotes Addiction Adventure Age Art Basketball Beer Character Children Choices Clinton Coffee Country Culture Death Democracy Drinking Earth Energy Epic Evil Falling In Love Fate Feelings Fighting Football Fun Funny Giving Golf Hate Heart Heaven Hell House Hunting Hurt Ignorance Insanity Inspirational Jesus Journalism Journey Life Literature Loneliness Losing Love Luck Military Morning Motorcycle Mountain Pain Paranoia Past Personality Perspective Police Politics Reality Risk Running Sanity School Sleep Soul Speed Sports Style Today Travel Truth Victory Voting Waiting War Winning Writing
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

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!

Hunter S. Thompson
Life, Death, Suicide
FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Nov 01, 2015

If you get people asking the wrong questions, you don't have to worry about the answers.

Hunter S. Thompson
People, Worry, Asking

We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they're dazed and confused. The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic.

Hunter S. Thompson
Confused, Smart, Our World
Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the F”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

Insanity is a legal term. Crazy is an art form.

Hunter S. Thompson
Art, Crazy, Insanity

The downward spiral of Dumbness in America is about to hit a new low.

Hunter S. Thompson
America, Spirals, Lows
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness”, p.266, Pan Macmillan

Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.

Hunter S. Thompson
Life, Fun, Epic

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Hunter S. Thompson
Music, Sports, Hunting
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1972)

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.

Hunter S. Thompson
Running, Dog, Money
Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Generation of Swine: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist”, p.43, Simon and Schuster

The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight - assuming it was straight in the first place.

Hunter S. Thompson
Men, Office, Democracy
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72”, p.111, Simon and Schuster

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.

Hunter S. Thompson
Inspirational, Lonely, Being Single
FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Dec 02, 2015

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.

Hunter S. Thompson
Goal, Looks, Want
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967”, p.119, Ballantine Books

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.

Hunter S. Thompson
Weed, Hate, Drinking
FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Jul 15, 2014

On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.

Hunter S. Thompson
Needs, Want, What You Want
Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the F”, p.172, Simon and Schuster

Human beings are the only creatures on earth that claim a God and the only thing that behaves like it hasn't got one.

Hunter S. Thompson
Earth, Claims, Behave

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone's imagination.

Hunter S. Thompson
Funny Life, Reality, Long

Anybody who thinks that 'it doesn't matter who's President' has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid war on the other side of the world-or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property-or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons-or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted.

Hunter S. Thompson
Stupid, War, Fighting
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness”, p.294, Pan Macmillan

A sense of humor is the main measure of sanity.

Hunter S. Thompson
Sense Of Humor, Sanity
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72”, p.111, Simon and Schuster

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.

Hunter S. Thompson
Vegas, Two, Drug
Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.531, Simon and Schuster

Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind but falling in love and not getting arrested.

Hunter S. Thompson
Falling In Love, Fun, Sleep
FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Sep 17, 2014

Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear.

Hunter S. Thompson
Fun, Giving Up, Believe
Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the F”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

Never fire a warning shot. It is a waste of ammunition.

Hunter S. Thompson
Fire, Warning, Waste

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world — a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts.

Hunter S. Thompson
Hate, Heart, Eye
"Kingdom of Fear".

Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.

Hunter S. Thompson
Inspirational, Motivational, I Hate You

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.

Hunter S. Thompson
Stupid, Philosophical, Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson (2010). “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream”, p.73, Vintage

Those who fail to learn from the brutal stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future.

Hunter S. Thompson
Past, Failing, Stomping

You May Also Like: