Hunter S. Thompson was a unique individual with a lot of interesting things to say about life, love, music and freedom. He was an author, journalist and musician who is best known for his book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” In this blog post, we will be looking at some of his most famous quotes about various topics. If you’re interested in learning more about Hunter S. Thompson or just want to read some great quotes, then keep reading!
Hunter S. Thompson Quotes
- “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “rain is acid… sex is death….” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “It never got weird enough for me.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Don’t judge your taco by its price” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “A word to the wise is infuriating. ” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “God’s mercy on you degenerate swine.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I am a road man for the lords of karma.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “You bought the ticket, now take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Pray to God, but row away from the rocks.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.” – Hunter S Thompson
- “Poor bastard. Wait ’till he sees the bats. ” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Some may never live, but the crazy never die.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “MDA….” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “Familiarity seems to breed contempt” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “You can’t miss what you never had.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Polo Is My Life
- “I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “As the Siamese says: “Pea rattles loud in empty head”.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Good people drink good beer.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Fellow Traveler” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “You won’t find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s only good when it’s over.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Still humping the American Dream” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “There may be flies on you and me, but there are no flies on Jesus.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Curse of Lono
- “Too weird to live, too rare to die!” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “It is bad business to go into War without a target.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear
- “Kill the body and the head will die.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “The downward spiral of Dumbness in America is about to hit a new low.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Fuck the Pope” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- “NOBODY KNOWS THE WEIRDNESS I’VE SEEN ON THE TRAIL OF THE BROWN BUFFALO” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Old God sure was in a good mood when he made this place.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb grey hairs” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “We can’t stop here, this is bat country!” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “You took too much man, too much, too much.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I wanted to take off all my clothes and never wear them again.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “I will fight for your right to be weird- just as I know you will fight for mine.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I felt a tremendous distance between myself and everything real.” – Hunter S. Thompson , The Rum Diary
- “Jesus man! You don’t look for acid! Acid finds you when *it* thinks you’re ready.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “What? No. We can’t stop here. This is bat country.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “It was like falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool full of mermaids.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Why did she have to happen? Just when I was doing so good without her.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “In the meantime, I would drink, rest, and ponder the meaning of this mob.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I’m a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon perhaps, but certainly not dangerous.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn’t know I could commit suicide at any time.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Turn the goddam music up! My heart feels like an alligator!” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “He had come so far from himself that I don’t think he knew who he was anymore.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I was not proud of what I had learned but I never doubted that it was worth knowing.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “There is nothing worse than a man in the throws of an ether bender.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “Reality itself is too twisted.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Hunter S. Thompson
- “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “We’d be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out to the end.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “I miss Nixon. Compared to these Nazis we have in the White House now, Richard Nixon was a flaming liberal.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “and the sad notes floated out to the patio and hung in the trees like birds too tired to fly” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “If you can’t make yourself understood by your friends, you’ll be in trouble when your enemies come for you.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Any combination of a 250-pound Mexican and LSD-25 is a potentially terminal menace for anything it can reach” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Timothy Leary and I kept the same hours. He believed, as I do, that “After midnight, all things are possible.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “An outlaw can be defined as somebody who lives outside the law, beyond the law and not necessarily against it.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “You better take care of me Lord, if you don’t you’re gonna have me on your hands.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Remembered line from a long- forgotten poem” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “What kind of rat bastard psychotic would play that song- right now, at this moment?” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Though I was careful never to mention it, I began to see a new dimension in everything that happened.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “There was absolutely no choice but to cut her adrift and hope her memory was fucked.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “All political power comes from the barrel of either guns, pussy, or opium pipes, and people seem to like it that way.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Shoot the pasties off the nipples of a ten-foot bull-dyke and win a cotton-candy goat.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Journalism is “a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world of misfits and drunkards and failures.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “We have bigger things to brood on and enormous reasons for wallowing in terminal craziness until we finally hit bottom.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “As your attorney I advise you to get the chiliburger. It’s a hamburger with chili on it.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “It was obvious that he was a man who marched through life to the rhythms of some drum I would never hear.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “Люди, стоящие у руля, мало изменились со времен Калигулы.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “All energy flows according to the whims of the great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy him.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “The waitress had the appearance of a very old hooker who had finally found her place in life” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “It was a maddening image and the only way to whip it was to hang on until dusk and banish the ghosts with rum.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who can see it coming and jump aside.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “All we have to do is get out and vote, while it’s still legal, and we will wash those crooked warmongers out of the White House.” – hunter s. thompson
- “We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Это странный мир. Кто-то богатеет, кто-то жрет дерьмо и умирает.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “He definitely had a feel for words, almost like an idiot-savant.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream
- “I had come to regard him as a loner with no real past and a future so vague that there was no sense talking about it.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “A cap of good acid costs five dollars and for that you can hear the Universal Symphony with God singing solo and Holy Ghost on drums.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “had just come back from a predawn breakfast at the Omaha Toddle House with Jack Nicholson,” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “My blood is too thick for California: I have never been able to properly explain myself in this climate.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “I am more than just a Serious basketball fan. I am a life-long Addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “I never knew where I was going, but I ripped the tits off of everything that got in my way. By the time they figured me out, it was too late.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Whatever he might have denied me was unimportant; it was the fact that he could deny me anything at all, even what I didn’t want” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “You can’t hoard fun. It has no shelf life.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whiskey and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind but falling in love and not getting arrested.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Who said anything about slicing you up? … I just wanted to carve a little Z on your forehead– nothing serious.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Ah, that we lack the courage of our romantic convictions; and thereby miss the wine of life, forgoing the very thing that makes living worthwhile.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “Paranoia is just another mask for ignorance. The truth, when you finally chase it down is almost always far worse than your darkest visions and fears” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “What do you want? Where’s the goddamn ice I ordered? Where’s the booze? There’s a war on, man! People are being killed!” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “With the truth so dull and depressing, the only working alternative is wild bursts of madness and filigree.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “Politics is the Art of Controlling Your Enviroment.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “I’m a word freak. I like words. I’ve always compared writing to music. That’s the way I feel about good paragraphs. When it really works, it’s like music.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “The mayor spoke in a very exotic way. It was obvious that he was a man who marched through life to the rhythms of some drum I would never hear.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “I knew a Buddhist once, and I’ve hated myself ever since.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe.” – Hunter S Thompson, Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
- “This is the fast lane, folks…and some of us like it here.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Jesus! Did I SAY that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me? I glanced over at my attorney, but he seemed oblivious…” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “She was wearing the same clothes, but now she looked haggard and dirty. The delicate illusions that get us through life can only stand so much strain.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
- “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, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Once I broke him out of jail, as it were, I would be responsible for him until my lawyers took over.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream
- “On my tombstone they will carve, “IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME.” – hunter s. thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
- “Liberalism itself has failed, and for a pretty good reason. It has been too often compromised by the people who represented it.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “He wandered into the Newsroom and asked for a job the same way he’d walk into a barbershop and ask for a haircut, and with no more idea of being turned down.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “The possibility of physical and mental collapse is now very real. No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “But Muskie was the one who could beat Nixon or unite the party or was the clear leader—or any of those other phrases of antiquity.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “right’ i said. ‘but first, we need the car. and after that, the cocaine. and then the tape recorder, for special music, and some acapulco shirts.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “The brutal reality of politics would be probably intolerable without drugs.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Weird behavior is natural in smart children, like curiosity is to a kitten.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Yeah, right. I think I’d like to get up there at night, all alone—with a head full of mescaline, just roll around in the sky like a big Condor….” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “To make a point of declaring friendship is to cheapen it. For men’s emotions are very rarely put into words successfully. ” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
- “America…just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “It gave me a strange feeling, and the rest of that night I didn’t say much, but merely sat there and drank, trying to decide if I was getting older and wiser, or just plain old.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “Выберите любой день, сделайте групповое фото десяти лучших журналистов Америки — и вы получите памятник человеческому уродству.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Take it from me, there’s nothing like a job well done. Except the quiet enveloping darkness at the bottom of a bottle of Jim Beam after a job done any way at all.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “It was one of those fine little love stories that can make you smile in your sleep at night.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Unless I weaken—and I might—I think I’ll be sure I can fly before I return to the nest. It should be interesting … if nothing else.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga” – hunter s thompson
- “The rhythm of the weekend was picking up … a huge beer delivery, the rending of metal, greedy laughter and a rumble of excitement when Sonny told what had happened at Williams’ store.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “The greatest mania of all is passion: and I am a natural slave to passion: the balance between my brain and my soul and my body is as wild and delicate as the skin of a Ming vase.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Curse of Lono
- “There is something fresh and crisp about the first hours of a Caribbean day, a happy anticipation that something is about to happen, maybe just up the street or around the next corner.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “He gave my hand a final shake. “Okay, Kemp,” he said with a grin. “Thanks a lot – you came through like a champ.” “Hell,” I said, starting the engine. “We’re all champs when we’re drunk.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “Есть такие вопросы, по поводу которых морочишься только до тех пор, пока не увидишь их бессмысленность.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “We came out here to find the American Dream, and now that we’re right in the vortex you want to quit … You must realize that we’ve found the main nerve.” I know,” he said. “That’s what gives me the Fear.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “and he would probably not agree with my conviction that a sense of humor is the main measure of sanity. But who can say for sure? Humor is a very private thing.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “No one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Live steady. Don’t fuck around. Give anything weird a wide berth–including people. It’s not worth it. I learned this the hard way, through brutal overindulgence.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “There was an awful suspicion in my mind that I’d finally gone over the hump, and the worst thing about it was that I didn’t feel tragic at all, but only weary, and sort of comfortably detached.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “There is not much mental distance between a feeling of having been screwed and the ethic of total retaliation, or at least the kind of random revenge that comes with outraging the public decency.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “Publishers are notoriously slothful about numbers, unless they’re attached to dollar signs – unlike journalists, quarterbacks, and felony criminal defendants who tend to be keenly aware of numbers at all times.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “But after a while you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. Most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “sounds of life and movement, people getting ready and people giving up, the sound of hope and the sound of hanging on, and behind them all, the quiet, deadly ticking of a thousand hungry clocks…” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
- “Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Jesus Creeping God! Is there a priest in this tavern? I want to confess! I’m a fucking sinner! Venal, mortal, carnal, major, minor – however you want to call it, Lord… I’m guilty.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “Getting barred from the White House is like being blackballed at the Playboy Club. There are definite advantages to having your name on the Ugly List in places like that.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “Vehicle… vehicle… vehicle—a very strange looking word, if you stare at it for eight or nine minutes… “Skulking” is another interesting-looking word. And so much for that.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “The Angels don’t like to be called losers, but they have learned to live with it. “Yeah, I guess I am,” said one. “But you’re looking at one loser who’s going to make a hell of a scene on the way out.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “Things are no longer what they seem to be. My telephones are haunted, and animals whisper at me from unseen places.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “I’ve always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it’s a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs. Old whores don’t do much giggling.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- “The first time I managed to pick up a basketball I knew I was destined to lead the UK to another National championship. … Even now, so many years later, I still believe Kentucky will go undefeated in March & win everything.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “The car suddenly veered off the road and we came to a sliding halt in the gravel. I was hurled against the dashboard. My attorney was slumped over the wheel. “What’s wrong?” I yelled. “We can’t stop here. This is bat country!” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks of not challenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba….” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “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 . . . Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “As things stand now, I am going to be a writer. I’m not sure that I’m going to be a good one or even a self-supporting one, but until the dark thumb of fate presses me to the dust and says ‘you are nothing’, I will be a writer.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo
- “The room was very quiet. I walked over to the TV set and turned it on to a dead channel-white noise at maximum decibels, a fine sound for sleeping, a powerful continuous hiss to drown out everything strange.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Sane is rich and powerful. Insane is wrong and poor and weak. The rich are free, the poor are put in cages. Res Ipsa Loquitur, amen. Mahalo.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- “With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “But if McGovern loses in November, control of the Democratic Party will instantly revert to the Ole Boys, and McGovern himself will be labeled “another Goldwater” and stripped of any power in the party.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “Половину своей жизни я потратил на попытки уйти из журналистики, но все еще барахтаюсь в этом низком ремесле, затягивающем хуже героина, странном, больном мире неудачников и пьяниц.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “So I know what I’m talking about when I say most “journalists” are lying shitheads. I never knew a reporter who could even say the word “corrupt” without pissing in his pants from pure guilt.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- “McGovern has made it painfully clear that he wants more than just the nomination; he has every intention of tearing the Democratic Party completely apart and re-building it according to his own blueprint…” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “It is like sitting in a traffic jam on the San Diego Freeway with your windows rolled up and Portuguese music booming out of the surround-sound speakers while animals gnaw on your neck and diseased bill collectors hammer on your doors with golf clubs.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “The highways are crowded with people who drive as if their sole purpose in getting behind the wheel is to avenge every wrong done them by man, beast or fate. The only thing that keeps them in line is their fear of death, jail and lawsuits.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
- “Every now and then you run up on one of those days when everything’s in vain … a stone bummer from start to finish; and if you know what’s good for you, on days like these you sort of hunker down in a safe corner and watch.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “I haven’t found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as a sitting at a desk writing, trying to imagine a story no matter how bizarre it is, [or] going out and getting into the weirdness of reality and doing a little time on the Proud Highway.” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “One of them is knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho. Take that one to bed with you tonight.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- “Both McGovern and Wallace, he said, draw on the same pool of extremely alienated blue-collar voters, a group that is constantly getting deeper into bitterness, cynicism, and resentment about the current government.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
- “No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt” – Hunter S. Thompson
- “Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “Выборы в Сенат 1986 года будут решающими. Возможно, победа демократов не изменит мир, но она по крайней мере утихомирит озверевшую компанию белых подонков, собравшихся под лозунгом «Бомбы и Иисус».” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s
- “How long can we maintain? I wonder. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection..” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- “666 Pennsylvania Ave. “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” —Revelation 13:18” – Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist
- “The mind of America is seized by a fatal dry rot – and it’s only a question of time before all that the mind controls will run amuck in a frenzy of stupid impotent fear. (In a letter dated 9-26-58)” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
- “I felt a little guilty about jangling the poor bugger’s brains with that evil fantasy. But what the hell? Anybody who wanders around the world saying, “Hell yes, I’m from Texas,” deserves whatever happens to him.” – Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- “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.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Wrapping Up
Hunter S. Thompson’s words have continued to inspire and entertain us over the decades and these 200 quotes are a testament to his unique perspective on life, love, music, freedom and more. Whether you’re looking for inspiration or just a few laughs, there’s something here for everyone. Maybe you’ll even find a new favorite quote!
