HUNTER S. THOMPSON QUOTES AND SAYINGS

Looking for famous quotes by author Hunter Thompson? We have rounded up the best collection of Hunter S. Thompson quotes, sayings, lines from his book, (with images and pictures) to inspire you about life, fear, and death.

MOST FAMOUS HUNTER S. THOMPSON

“Too weird to live, too rare to die!” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I was not proud of what I had learned but I never doubted that it was worth knowing.” — Hunter S. Thompson, Book: “The Rum Diary”
“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
“THE EDGE, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is the ones who have gone over.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Hope rises and dreams flicker and die. Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Life is beautiful and living is pain.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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 off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” — Hunter S. Thompson

HUNTER S. THOMPSON QUOTES

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Se without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sec.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“There is no fool like a careless gambler who starts taking victory for granted.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“How much do you value your freedom? Would you trade for some illusion of security? Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I haven’t found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as sitting at a desk writing, trying to imagine a story no matter how bizarre it is.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“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
“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.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe. I am quite sincere about some of the things that people take very lightly, and almost insultingly unconcerned about some of the things which most people take seriously. In short, I am basically antisocial: certainly not to an alarming degree, but just more so than I appear to me.” — Hunter S. Thompson

HUNTER S. THOMPSON QUOTES ABOUT LIFE

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“You can’t miss what you never had.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“You can’t hoard fun. It has no shelf life.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“If you can’t make yourself understood by your friends, you’ll be in trouble when your enemies come for you.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.” — Hunter S. Thompson

HUNTER S. THOMPSON QUOTES ABOUT DEATH

“Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“By any accepted standard, I have had more than nine lives. I counted them up once, and there were 13 times I almost and maybe should have died.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. 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. ” — Hunter S. Thompson

INSPIRATIONAL HUNTER S. THOMPSON QUOTES

“A word to the wise is infuriating.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“It never got weird enough for me.” — 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
“At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I will fight for your right to be weird- just as I know you will fight for mine.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“You better take care of me Lord, if you don’t you’re gonna have me on your hands.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“It was one of those fine little love stories that can make you smile in your sleep at night.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“All energy flows according to the whims of the great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy him.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“With the truth so dull and depressing, the only working alternative is wild bursts of madness and filigree.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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

DEEP QUOTES BY HUNTER S. THOMPSON

“Still humping the American dream.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I am a road man for the lords of karma.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Truth is weirder than any fiction, I’ve seen.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Insanity is a legal term. Crazy is an art form.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I knew a Buddhist once, and I’ve hated myself ever since.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Turn the goddam music up! My heart feels like an alligator!” — Hunter S. Thompson
“You won’t find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“I felt a tremendous distance between myself and everything real.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Weird behavior is natural in smart children, like curiosity is to a kitten.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb grey hairs.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“On my tombstone they will carve, “IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“It was like falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool full of mermaids.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“He had come so far from himself that I don’t think he knew who he was anymore.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.” — 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
“I’m a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon perhaps, but certainly not dangerous.” — 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
“There’s a terrible danger in voting for the lesser of two evils because the parties can set it up that way.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Remembered line from a long- forgotten poem.” — 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
“There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks of not challenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.” — 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
“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
“Gonzo journalism is a style of reporting based on William Faulkner’s idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism…” — 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“I wasn’t trying to be an outlaw writer. I never heard of that term; somebody else made it up. But we were all outside the law: Kerouac, Miller, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kesey; I didn’t have a gauge as to who was the worst outlaw. I just recognised allies: my people.” — Hunter S. Thompson
“There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.” — Hunter S. Thompson