Top 500 Hunter S. Thompson Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “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

102. “We can’t stop here, this is bat country!”

— Hunter S. Thompson

103. “Richard Nixon was an evil man – evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it. He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

104. “With the truth so dull and depressing, the only working alternative is wild bursts of madness and filigree.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

105. “I am a road man for the lords of karma.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

106. “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.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

107. “No one holds command over me. No man. No god. No Prince. What is a claim of age for ones who are immortal? What is a claim of power for ones who defy death? Call your damnable hunt. We shall see whom I drag screaming to hell with me.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

108. “At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

109. “Paranoia is just another mask for ignorance. The truth, when you finally chase it down is almost always far worse than your darkest visions and fears.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

110. “But after a while 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.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

111. “Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

112. “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

113. “The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definitions.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

114. “I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

115. “Have an objective to give your bender a theme. For instance, stalking and killing a wild pig with a bowie knife.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

116. “Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairy-tale artist, you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you’re writing about before you alter it.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

117. “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

118. “These things happen. One day you run everything, and the next day you run like a dog.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

119. “Even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

120. “I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

121. “When you push a car off a cliff and blow it up, be sure to roll the windows down to avoid shrapnel. Also, strip the license plate so you’re not billed for the cleanup.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

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

— Hunter S. Thompson

123. “A word to the wise is infuriating.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

124. “Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink. We were, after all, the cream of the national sporting press.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

125. “It was one of those fine little love stories that can make you smile in your sleep at night.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

126. “Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

127. “Don’t judge your taco by its price.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

128. “I’m a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon perhaps, but certainly not dangerous.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

129. “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.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

130. “Of Richard M. Nixon: A foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

131. “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

132. “Insanity is a legal term. Crazy is an art form.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

133. “Sex, drugs, and insanity have always worked for me, but I wouldn’t recommend them for everyone.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

134. “Victory is a fleeting thing in the gambling business. Today’s winners are tomorrow’s blinking toads, dumb beasts with no hope.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

135. “Avoid being seized by the police. The cops are not your friends. Don’t tell them anything.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

136. “Fear is just another word for ignorance.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

137. “Duke is an ugly word in Kentucky. Nothing in the world compares to the joy of beating those hateful swine from Duke.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

138. “There is no fool like a careless gambler who starts taking victory for granted.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

139. “An outlaw can be defined as somebody who lives outside the law, beyond the law and not necessarily against it.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

140. “There is something fresh and crisp about the first hours of a Caribbean day, a happy anticipation that something is about to happen, maybe just up the street or around the next corner.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

141. “Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

142. “What kind of rat bastard psychotic would play that song- right now, at this moment?”

— Hunter S. Thompson

143. “Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can’t reach.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

144. “Things are no longer what they seem to be. My telephones are haunted, and animals whisper at me from unseen places.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

145. “Once I establish credit, I may be able to function. A man needs credit. Especially when he has no money.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

146. “Today’s pig is tomorrows bacon!”

— Hunter S. Thompson

147. “Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

148. “But I am in the gambling business, for good or ill; it is the business I have chosen, and the only governing rule that we all recognize is: always sit close to an exit and never trust a man who doesn’t sweat.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

149. “With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know.”

— Hunter S. Thompson

150. “Never mind the track. The track is for punks. We are Road People. We are Cafe Racers.”

— Hunter S. Thompson