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“I think that the truth of what rings through all his writing is that he meant what he said. If that is entertainment to you, well, that’s OK. If you think that it enlightened you, well, that’s even better. If you wonder if he’s gone to Heaven or Hell, rest assured he will check out them both, find out which one Richard Milhous Nixon went to — and go there.” – Ralph Steadman
Very few writers achieve an image that overshadows their actual body of work, but boy, is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson ever one of them. Hunter S. Thompson quotes are some of the most bizarre (yet insightful) quotes out there. His persona of an acid-soaked degenerate frantically pecking away at the keys of an electric typewriter while surrounded by mounds of rotting, half-eaten grapefruits isn’t entirely spot-on, however.
That has been largely played up, especially for the sake of movies like Where the Buffalo Roam and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937, Thompson loved sports from an early age and co-founded an athletic club at his elementary school. In 1952 he was accepted into the Athenaeum Literary Association and contributed articles to its yearbook, although he was kicked out three years later when he was charged as an accessory to robbery. He did not graduate high school following his month-long stint in the slammer.
Thompson joined the Air Force. While stationed at Eglin Air Force Base he lied about his experience to land a job as sports editor for The Command Courier. Following his honorable discharge he worked for Time until he was fired for insubordination. He was subsequently fired from another newspaper for damaging an office candy machine and arguing with one of the rag’s advertisers.
Thompson ultimately took a job with The Nation to write a story about the Hells Angels. Preferring to live his subject material rather than merely report on it, Thompson spent the next year riding with the club until its members beat the shit out of him. Fortunately for the young author his book Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs put him on the national radar.
Thompson first employed his signature Gonzo style of journalism, which did away with any pretense of objectivity to present himself as the hero of the story, in his 1970 article “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” for Scanlan’s Monthly. This style was birthed out of necessity, as Thompson often had to resort to frantic cadence in order to meet deadlines.
Thompson wrote on a range of topics. “The ‘Hashbury’ is the Capital of the Hippies” critiqued aimless dropouts who sought drugs over political or artistic ideals. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas covers everything from the death of the American Dream to the effects of ether on Thompson’s own body. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 treats readers to its writer’s inimitable political musings, and marks the beginning of Thompson’s outspoken hatred for Richard Nixon.
Thompson began to slow down in 1974, mostly publishing anthologies of his earlier work from there on out. He committed suicide in 2005.
Thompson was a gun nut, political activist (who was very nearly elected sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado in 1970), ardent supporter of the legalization of all drugs (which he did, in fact, consume prodigiously), communist sympathizer, and 9/11 skeptic, and he managed to summon an even greater hatred for George W. Bush than he ever had for Nixon. He was one of a kind, and this is good, because we probably couldn’t handle another.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Quotes
“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.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by 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.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by 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 up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by 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.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
“History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of ‘history’ it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time – and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
“But our trip was different. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country-but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by 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.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by 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.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
My blood is too thick for California: I have never been able to properly explain myself in this climate.”
– Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson Quotes on Life
“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
“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“Life has improved immeasurably since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.”
– 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
“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
“That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
The Best Hunter S. Thompson Quotes
“I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn’t anticipate.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
“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
“If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people – including me – would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”
– 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
Hunter S. Thompson Love Quotes
“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
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