Gonzo Quotes - Page 3

• I have always been fascinated by dark and mysterious stuff. I guess I have a pretty dark and gloomy side. Writing songs saves me from going completely gonzo.

  Gavin Rossdale

  Song, Writing, Dark

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• Happy," I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. 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. They are too elusive and far to relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they’re scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Strong, Mean, Home

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

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• At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Snow, Mountain, Leopards

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the F”, p.134, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Happiness, Believe, Positivity

  Hunter S. Thompson, Beef Torrey, Kevin Simonson (2008). “Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson”, p.14, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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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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• Maybe there is no Heaven. Or maybe this is all pure gibberish - a product of the demented imagination of a lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate who has found a way to live out where the real winds blow - to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested... Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Falling In Love, Fun, Hate

  "Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s". Book by Hunter S. Thompson, 1988.

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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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• 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

  Life, Death, Suicide

  FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Nov 01, 2015

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• When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Music, Sports, Hunting

  Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1972)

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• In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Las Vegas, Stupidity, Fear And Loathing

  Hunter S. Thompson (2010). “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream”, p.73, Vintage

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• Buy the ticket, take the ride.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Fun, Vegas, Fear And Loathing

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream”, p.238, 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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• 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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• A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Procrastination, Men, Choices Made

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967”, p.119, Ballantine Books

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

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Beauty, Soul, Triumph

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• 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

  Stupid, Philosophical, Las Vegas

  Hunter S. Thompson (2010). “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream”, p.73, Vintage

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

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Funny, Truth, Work

  Hunter S. Thompson, Beef Torrey, Kevin Simonson (2008). “Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson”, p.13, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Hunters, Slave, Nations

  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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• 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

  Running, Memories, Knowing

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time”, p.104, Simon and Schuster

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

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Weed, Hate, Drinking

  FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Jul 15, 2014

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• 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

  Ideas, Style, Fiction

  The Great Shark Hunt "Jacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1979)

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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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• 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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