Hunter S. Thompson Quotes (79 Quotes)

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.

Who are these people These faces Where did they come from They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas, and sweet Jesus, there are a hell of a lot of them at 430 on a Sunday morning. Still humping the American dream.

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.

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.

There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Those of us who have been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts. We wanted strong drink.

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.

Of all the men that have run for president in the twentieth century, only George McGovern truly understood what a monument America could be to the human race.

We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling consciousness expansion without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.

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.

So this is how the world works, all energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

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

Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.

For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.

You better take care of me Lord, if you don't you're gonna have me on your hands.

There is a progression of understanding vis-a-vis pro football that varies drastically with the factor of distance -- physical, emotional, intellectual and every other way. Which is exactly the way it should be, in the eyes of the amazingly small number of people who own and control the game, because it is this finely managed distance factor that accounts for the high-profit mystique that blew the sacred institution of baseball off its ''national pastime'' pedestal in less than fifteen years.

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.

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 . . .

Hey Rube Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness ... Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes.

was doldrums time.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

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.

Publishers are notoriously slothful about numbers, unless they're attached to dollar signs -- unlike journalists, quarterbacks, and felony criminal defendents who tend to be keenly aware of numbers at all times.

You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when its waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.

There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge.