Some lists of quotes are easier to put together than others.
This was an easy one. Hunter S. Thompson had a way with words. Subversive. Insightful. But, more than anything, he is just really fun to read.
So here ya go… our favorite quotes by the irreplaceable 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
Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. Hunter S. Thompson
But 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
Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously. Hunter S. Thompson
Like most others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles – a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other – that kept me going. Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. Hunter S. Thompson
I was not proud of what I had learned but I never doubted that it was worth knowing. Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why. Hunter S. Thompson, The Curse of Lono
Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used. Hunter S. Thompson
Life is beautiful and living is pain. Hunter S. Thompson
As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day. 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, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman
I will fight for your right to be weird- just as I know you will fight for mine. Hunter S. Thompson
A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long. Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
1) Never trust a cop in a raincoat.
2) Beware of enthusiasm and of love, both are temporary and quick to sway.
3) If asked if you care about the world’s problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks, he will never ask you again.
4) Never give your real name.
5) If ever asked to look at yourself, don’t look.
6) Never do anything the person standing in front of you can’t understand.
7) Never create anything, it will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman
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, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Too weird to live, too rare to die! Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I never knew where I was going, but I ripped the tits off of everything that got in my way. 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
We must ride this strange torpedo out until the end. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I’ve never been able to properly express myself in this climate. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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
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, The Rum Diary
It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die. Hunter S. Thompson
All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
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. The others–the living–are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there. Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels
Journalism, to me, is just another drug – a free ride to scenes I’d probably miss if I stayed straight. Hunter S. Thompson
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me. Hunter S. Thompson
Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I’m here to tell you that fast is better. Hunter S. Thompson
Good people drink good beer. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. 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
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, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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
This is the fast lane, folks… and some of us like it here. Hunter S. Thompson
Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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
Turn the goddam music up! My heart feels like an alligator! Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
Some may never live, but the crazy never die. Hunter S. Thompson
He had that rare weird electricity about him — that extremely wild and heavy presence that you only see in a person who has abandoned all hope of ever behaving ‘normally.’ 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, The Paris Review
Paranoia is just another word for ignorance. Hunter S. Thompson
Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Hunter S. Thompson
Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s only good when it’s over. Hunter S. Thompson
I couldn’t imagine, and I don’t say this with any pride, but I really couldn’t imagine writing without a desperate deadline. Hunter S. Thompson, The Paris Review
A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance. Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman
For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. 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, Songs of the Doomed
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
A man has to BE something; he has to matter. Hunter S. Thompson, A Letter to Hume Logan
Most people who deal in words don’t have much faith in them and I am no exception – especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
It was one of those fine little love stories that can make you smile in your sleep at night. Hunter S. Thompson
I measure my life in pages. If I have pages at dawn, it’s been a good night. Hunter S. Thompson, The Paris Review
I’m a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon perhaps, but certainly not dangerous. 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. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
It never got weird enough for me. Hunter S. Thompson
