Top 500 Hunter S. Thompson Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

52. “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.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

53. “All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Remembered line from a long- forgotten poem.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

54. “I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

55. “All energy flows according to the whims of the great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy him.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

56. “Relax – This won’t hurt.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

57. “In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

58. “The downward spiral of Dumbness in America is about to hit a new low.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

59. “On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

60. “Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

61. “A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

62. “Just sick enough to be totally confident.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

63. “The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

64. “The brutal reality of politics would be probably intolerable without drugs.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

65. “As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

66. “Politics is the art of controlling your environment.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

67. “I was not proud of what I had learned but I never doubted that it was worth knowing.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

68. “Weird behavior is natural in smart children, like curiosity is to a kitten.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

69. “Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

70. “I am a generous man, by nature, and far more trusting than I should be. Indeed. The real world is risky territory for people with generosity of spirit. Beware.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

71. “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

72. “No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

73. “Remember this, folks – I am a Hillbilly, and I don’t always Bet the same way I talk. Good advice is one thing, but smart gambling is quite another.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

74. “There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks of not challenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

75. “Poor bastard. Wait ’till he sees the bats.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

76. “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

77. “We are all wired into a survival trip, now.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

78. “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

79. “Nixon represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

80. “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

81. “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

82. “Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

83. “I was never trying, necessarily, to be an outlaw. It was just the place in which I found myself.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

84. “I feel trapped if I know I can’t kill myself at anytime.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

85. “I felt a tremendous distance between myself and everything real.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

86. “It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

87. “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

88. “All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

89. “We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

90. “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

91. “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

92. “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

93. “Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

94. “Still humping the American Dream.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

95. “Old God sure was in a good mood when he made this place.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

96. “I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. My father taught me that, along with a few other things that have kept my life interesting.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

97. “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

98. “God’s mercy on you degenerate swine.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

99. “Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

100. “What passed for society was a loud, giddy whirl of thieves and pretentious hustlers, a dull sideshow full of quacks and clowns and philistines with gimp mentalities.”

— Hunter S. Thompson