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Hunter S. Thompson Quotes

Journalist
Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.
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Watching TV becomes a full-time job when you can scan 200 channels all day and all night and still have the option of punching Night Dreams into the video machine, if the rest of the world seems dull.
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Hallucinations are bad enough. But after awhile 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. But nobody can handle that other trip-the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk into the Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
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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.
From The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
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KNOW YOUR DOPE FIEND. YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT! You will not be able to see his eyes because of the Tea-Shades, but his knuckles will be white from inner tension and his pants will be crusted with semen from constantly jacking off when he can't find a rape victim. He will stagger and babble when questioned. He will not respect your badge. The Dope Fiend fears nothing. He will attack, for no reason, with every weapon at his command-including yours. BEWARE. Any officer apprehending a suspected marijuana addict should use all necessary force immediately. One stitch in time (on him) will usually save nine on you. Good luck.
-The Chief
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
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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.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
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On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
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She laughed. 'It won't last. Nothing lasts. But I'm happy now.'

'Happy,' I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception--especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they're scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.
From The Rum Diary
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The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
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A word to the wise is infuriating.
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Across the board... Not junkies or freaks, but people who were just as comfortable with drugs like weed, booze, or coke as we are - and we're not weird, are we? Hell no, we're just overworked professionals who need to relax now and then, have a bit of the whoop and the giggle, right?
From Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson
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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
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The two keys to success as a sportswriter are: 1) A blind willingness to believe anything you're told by the coaches, flacks, hustlers and other "official spokesmen" for the team-owners who provide the free booze ... and: 2) A Roget's Thesaurus, in order to avoid using the same verbs and adjectives twice in the same paragraph.

Even a sports editor, for instance, might notice something wrong with a lead that said: "The precision-jack-hammer attack of the Miami Dolphins stomped the balls off the Washington Redskins today by stomping and hammering with one precise jack-thrust after another up the middle, mixed with pinpoint-precision passes into the flat and numerous hammer-jack stomps around both ends....
From Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.
From Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
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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 . . . Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.
From Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's
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I knew a Buddhist once, and I've hated myself ever since.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
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This is the fast lane, folks...and some of us like it here.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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?
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Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.
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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!
From The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Watching TV becomes a full-time job when you can scan 200 channels all day and all night and still have the option of punching Night Dreams into the video machine, if the rest of the world seems dull.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hallucinations are bad enough. But after awhile 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. But nobody can handle that other trip-the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk into the Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
KNOW YOUR DOPE FIEND. YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT! You will not be able to see his eyes because of the Tea-Shades, but his knuckles will be white from inner tension and his pants will be crusted with semen from constantly jacking off when he can't find a rape victim. He will stagger and babble when questioned. He will not respect your badge. The Dope Fiend fears nothing. He will attack, for no reason, with every weapon at his command-including yours. BEWARE. Any officer apprehending a suspected marijuana addict should use all necessary force immediately. One stitch in time (on him) will usually save nine on you. Good luck.
-The Chief
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She laughed. 'It won't last. Nothing lasts. But I'm happy now.'

'Happy,' I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception--especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they're scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.
From The Rum Diary
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A word to the wise is infuriating.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Across the board... Not junkies or freaks, but people who were just as comfortable with drugs like weed, booze, or coke as we are - and we're not weird, are we? Hell no, we're just overworked professionals who need to relax now and then, have a bit of the whoop and the giggle, right?
From Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The two keys to success as a sportswriter are: 1) A blind willingness to believe anything you're told by the coaches, flacks, hustlers and other "official spokesmen" for the team-owners who provide the free booze ... and: 2) A Roget's Thesaurus, in order to avoid using the same verbs and adjectives twice in the same paragraph.

Even a sports editor, for instance, might notice something wrong with a lead that said: "The precision-jack-hammer attack of the Miami Dolphins stomped the balls off the Washington Redskins today by stomping and hammering with one precise jack-thrust after another up the middle, mixed with pinpoint-precision passes into the flat and numerous hammer-jack stomps around both ends....
From Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.
From Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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 . . . Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.
From Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I knew a Buddhist once, and I've hated myself ever since.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
This is the fast lane, folks...and some of us like it here.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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!
From The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Watching TV becomes a full-time job when you can scan 200 channels all day and all night and still have the option of punching Night Dreams into the video machine, if the rest of the world seems dull.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hallucinations are bad enough. But after awhile 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. But nobody can handle that other trip-the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk into the Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
KNOW YOUR DOPE FIEND. YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT! You will not be able to see his eyes because of the Tea-Shades, but his knuckles will be white from inner tension and his pants will be crusted with semen from constantly jacking off when he can't find a rape victim. He will stagger and babble when questioned. He will not respect your badge. The Dope Fiend fears nothing. He will attack, for no reason, with every weapon at his command-including yours. BEWARE. Any officer apprehending a suspected marijuana addict should use all necessary force immediately. One stitch in time (on him) will usually save nine on you. Good luck.
-The Chief
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
She laughed. 'It won't last. Nothing lasts. But I'm happy now.'

'Happy,' I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception--especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they're scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.
From The Rum Diary
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A word to the wise is infuriating.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Across the board... Not junkies or freaks, but people who were just as comfortable with drugs like weed, booze, or coke as we are - and we're not weird, are we? Hell no, we're just overworked professionals who need to relax now and then, have a bit of the whoop and the giggle, right?
From Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The two keys to success as a sportswriter are: 1) A blind willingness to believe anything you're told by the coaches, flacks, hustlers and other "official spokesmen" for the team-owners who provide the free booze ... and: 2) A Roget's Thesaurus, in order to avoid using the same verbs and adjectives twice in the same paragraph.

Even a sports editor, for instance, might notice something wrong with a lead that said: "The precision-jack-hammer attack of the Miami Dolphins stomped the balls off the Washington Redskins today by stomping and hammering with one precise jack-thrust after another up the middle, mixed with pinpoint-precision passes into the flat and numerous hammer-jack stomps around both ends....
From Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.
From Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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 . . . Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.
From Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I knew a Buddhist once, and I've hated myself ever since.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
This is the fast lane, folks...and some of us like it here.
From Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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!
From The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote