Gonzo Quotes

• We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Military, War, Debt

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness”, p.215, Pan Macmillan

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• 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

  Inspirational, Crazy, Epic

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom”, p.372, Pan Macmillan

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• Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Writing, Artist, Reality

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• 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.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Running, Men, America

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• 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

  Fate, Differences, Generations

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.589, Simon and Schuster

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• The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Morning, Business, Hair

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• Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Law, Perspective, Style

  Letter, The Champion, July 1990

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• 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.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Running, Dog, Money

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Generation of Swine: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist”, p.43, Simon and Schuster

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• There is not much mental distance between a feeling of having been screwed and the ethic of total retaliation, or at least the kind of random revenge that comes with outraging the public decency.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Revenge, Distance, Feelings

  Hunter S. Thompson (1967). “Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga”, Ballantine Books

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

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Thinking, Long, Fear And Loathing

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Rum Diary: A Novel”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

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• Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  People, Hunters, Deals

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Rum Diary: Film Tie-in Edition”, p.57, A&C Black

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• We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Vegas, Two, Drug

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.531, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Suicide, Hurt, Fun

  Suicide note, February 20, 2005.

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• The best fiction is far more true than any journalism.

  William Faulkner

  Fiction, Journalism, Newspapers

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• We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Las Vegas, Sky, Top Down

  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas pt. 1 (1971)

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• 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 understands at the time--and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Thinking, Las Vegas, Long

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream”, p.120, Pan Macmillan

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

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Truth, Cells, Hunters

  1973 'Fear and Loathing at the Superbowl', in Rolling Stone, 15 Feb.

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• There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Winning, Vegas, Fear And Loathing

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.93, Pan Macmillan

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• 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 control 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

  People, Hunters, Gone

  FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Sep 05, 2014

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• And that, I think, was the handle--that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting--on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark--the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Beautiful, Military, Mean

  "Fictional character: Raoul Duke". "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", 1998.

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• The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Men, Vegas, Fear And Loathing

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.531, Simon and Schuster

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• How long can we maintain? I wonder. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Lonely, Home, Boys

  Hunter S. Thompson (2010). “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream”, p.9, Vintage

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• Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Dream, Heart, Journey

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

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• 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?

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Sex, Rain, Hunters

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Generation of Swine: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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• 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.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Hero, Race, Champion

  1969 'Those Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines Ain't What They Used To Be!', in Pageant, Sep.

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