"We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine and a whole multicolored collection of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers . . . Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. 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 . . ."
—Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971
"The Sixties were an era of extreme reality. I miss the smell of tear gas. I miss the fear of getting beaten."
—Independent on Sunday, October 12, 1997
"Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. 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."
—The Great Shark Hunt, 1979
"If I'd written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."
—Rolling Stone, February 15, 1973
"I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes."
—Speech, University of Colorado, 1977
"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."
—Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s, 1988
"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."
—"Extreme Behavior in Aspen," February 3, 2003
"My concept of death for a long time was to come down that mountain road at 120 and just keep going straight right there, burst out through the barrier and hang out above all that . . . and there I'd be, sitting in the front seat, stark naked, with a case of whiskey next to me and a case of dynamite in the trunk . . . honking the horn, and the lights on, and just sit there in space for an instant, a human bomb, and fall down into that mess of steel mills. It'd be a tremendous goddam explosion. No pain. No one would get hurt. I'm pretty sure, unless they've changed the highway, that launching place is still there. As soon as I get home, I ought to take the drive just to check it out."
—Quoted in St. Petersburg Times, February 22, 2005
"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep."
—The Great Shark Hunt, 1979
"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? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die."
—Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s, 1988
External resource on help with drug addiction: http://www.altamirarecovery.com/drug-rehab/
@ Sambeaux He didn't "wimp out" and commit suicide--he went out exactly when he was ready, exactly when he felt the world didn't need him anymore. Stop slandering his name. R.I.P., Dr. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson, a new age commando, a true hero of gonzo journalism. Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me, I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to. Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me, in the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you.
for those of you who call suicide a cowardly act for a man riddled with cancer FUCK YOU! HELL SUICIDE IS THE BEST DEATH A MAN COULD HOPE FOR SHORT OF A HART ATTACK DURRING INTERCOURSE WITH A WOMAN HALF YOUR AGE
i agree with vincent...
"we needed 10 HSTs" Naw, then he wouldnt have been so special....
How about........... "We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled the 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel. -Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
"councelor"
Does anyone know the full context of his comment on "America raising a generation of dancers"? I am wondering because I heard it was Brandon Flowers' basis for the new song Human.
"Lets get down to the brass tacks, how much for the ape?"
The "wave speech": "Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. 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. . . . 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 really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened. My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . . There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . . 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 — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
# 10 quote is incorrect, it should read: "The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. 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. 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." Unless you are quoting the movie and not the book...
Death is not an end, it is a means, a beginning to another story... R.I.P Hunter S Thompson
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
every day we find out Hunter Thompson, just like George Orwell, are prophets.
I noticed on here that someone said that Hunter S. Thompson "wimped out" when committing suicide. If you've ever read anything by him you'd know that he was a man who controlled his life and that's exactly what he was doing. Not wimping out but taking control.
when you seen life through those shades there is always a glimmer of life.
open mindedness is what we have lost in this country... i, though, have not lost mine :-) one love!
Those of you who think Thompson was a coward for his suicide are missing the big picture. He was never going to be the type of man who simply sat around and waited for death to come to him. He wanted to control his own destiny, and never planned on becoming old and feeble. To be able to end your own life when you know your body is failing takes more courage than to sit in a hospital bed and wait for death to come.
"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. "
From memory (ain't gonna spend two hours trying to confirm it, but it is in 'The Great Shark Hunt'): "A cap of good acid costs about $5. For this you get to hear the Universal Symphony, with the Holy Ghost on drums, and God singing solo."
"true happiness in politics is a wide open hammer-shot on a poor bastard who knows he's trapped, but can't flee."
"BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE". simple, clear, best goddam creedo i've ever heard.
there should be no top quote lists for this man....people read his quotes and love him when they're not even half of what made him who he was. Read his novels. And for those of you pointing fingers of cowardice at the way he went out, wake up. He wasnt trying to escape. He felt it was his time. If you still feel the same when you're that age, then bitch away. Peace.
I love all these quotes - well chosen!
Comment #3 "Launching Place" Hunter died Feb 20th. At the bottom it says Feb 22nd Whats up with that
"with a bit of luck, it ruined his life forever"
HST commited suicide. How could we, how could we call him a coward. Shame on you to learn from someone then say they are useless because they had a flaw. If HST was so cool so often, wouldn’t you have the respect to learn from him, recite him, burn him with an arrow shot from a cliff on a bed of wood on the water. Or maybe you needed that leader who disappeared and you are the suicide without him, loser.
"WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE TOUGH GET GOING" DR HUNTERS MOST MISUNDERSTOOD QUOTE EVER. IT MEANS THE OPPOSITE TO WHAT IS ACCEPTED TODAY. ITS CONTEXT IS COWARDICE OF THE STRONG
Here's my favorite: "It would be easy to say that we owe it all to the Bush family from Texas, but that would be too simplistic. They are only errand boys for the vengeful, bloodthirsty cartel of raving Jesus-freaks and super-rich money mongers who have ruled for at least the last 20 years, and arguably the last 200 years. They take orders well, and they don't ask too many questions. The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War. Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear. Ho ho ho. Let's not get carried away here. Freedom was yesterday in this country. Its value has been discontinued. The only freedom we truely crave today is freedom from Dumbness. Nothing else matters." HST
FOOTBALL SEASON IS OVER "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." ...his "suicide" note "Weird hero's and mold breaking champions exists as living proof to those who need it" He was one of that which he spoke of - a genius with a side of madman "...to weird to live, to rare to die..."
This one's from the movie "Fear and Loathing . . ." simply because I can't find my copy of the book to verify it's the same. In any case, these are words I've taken to heart and put into practice a time or two when circumstances demanded it: Few people understand the psychology of dealing with a highway traffic cop. A normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side. This is wrong. It arouses contempt in the cop heart. Make the bastard chase you. He will follow.
Hunter is my hero
The right to take ones own life is a given, like a desire to rise above this sphere of naives and fools squirming in the corruption of their own stupidity. It's not weak, it's a calculated expression of self responsibilty. I've been, I've seen and now it's time to go.... Anyone who does not understand this is mearly a puppet of the accepted status quo.
This has been a fun ride. I came here looking for an old favorite & found it. "There he goes. One of Gods own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, too rare to die" HST
Another one bit the dust . . . I asked myself today why am I still alive . . . there are only a few of us left . . . the vast majority of beings born in the last two generations bore me to tears . . . .
These arent the 10 best!!! 99% of his best work was done by the late 70s!! 3 of the best: There he goes god's own prototype never meant for mass production too weird to live to rare to die The basic assumption that someone or something is tending the light at the end of the tunnel was what the world would be doing on a saturday night if the nazis won the war.
I only wish he had stayed around long enough to see what this country was capable of....
Lament his passing all you want but for Christ's sake do something about it. Write something, do crazy shit, run for sheriff, something so we know he wasn't the last of his breed. Since his passing I have encountered nothing but people crying over his passing and whining about how sad a state the world is in now. Do something.
Last know written words, "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."[27]
we all suck or we would all be in prison for "terrorist" acts against this nation or occupying ourselves by fertilizing our crops with our dead enemies remains. ME
Hunter's trip was about life, not death, man . . . He was out to explore the boundaries of reality and then made a quick exit when the burden of living became overwhelming. An American legend indeed!
WHITE RABBIT...! WHITE RABBIT...!
MY GOD IT WOULD TAKE A BLIND MAN TO SHAKE THE MAN WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND HUNTERS IDEA,S SORRY BLIND AND DEAF ,ITS SIMPLE IF WE COULD EMBRACE HIS IDEA,S AND MAYBE ,JUST MAYBE THERE WOULD BE A LOT LESS PEOPLE FEELING SORRY FOR THEM SELVES AND REACHING FOR THE PILLS TO STOP THEM FEELING DEPRESSED ,HUNTER S THOMPSON WAS A MAN WITH IDEA,S THAT MOST WHITE BRED IDIOTS SEEN AS A THREAT BUT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THEIR SERENTY ,TO MANY PEOPLE TAKE LIFE WAY TO SERIOUSLY AND THAT WAS HIS MESSAGE hunter spoke from the heart ,dont get me wrong he was,nt perfect but who is ,at least he was honest and thats where he erns his place in the history books ,he fought against war ,dictatership he just liked to see people smile what the fuck was wrong with that ,and to quote the great man himselve,if anythings worth doing its worth doing right,and he was right dont listen to be told what to do ,do your own thing for fuck sake ,free will was,nt a rumour its ever man woman childs right to make their own way in life ,if your parents want you too be a scientist be a pig farmer(if thats want you wanna be,ha,ha)i plan to carry on hunters work gonzo will live on if i can help it (shit course i can thats what free will is about)peace out ,in memory of hunter s thompson
i agree chops-bEcKnAsTy:)
#11 Did anybody remember to bring the toilet paper?
just checkin in to reaffirm my beliefs that dynamite and liqour do in fact mix well, and that my sixties blown out anti nixon and the rest of the jerks attitude was well based in fact. and yes the drugs were great and the sex was better, so in my dedicatioin to uncle hunter, the rest of you fuckers can suck it and play the game of sheep being lead somwhere that i have not identified yet, it is there believe me, i seen it while doin window pane god bless youi hunter
Perfect..everything he said Was a quote...how about,from"Fear&Loathing In Las Vegas"(circus circus scene)-Ninety-nine cents more for a voice message."Say whatever you want, fella. They'll hear you, don't worry about that.Remember you'll be two-hundred feet tall."...We will close the drapes tonight.A thing like that could send a drug person careening around the room like a ping pong ball.Hallucinations are bad enough.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. But Nodody can handle that other trip- the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk int the Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs.reality itself is too twisted.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
To Sambeaux: You may have read all his words, but you've demonstrated that you understand very little. This man was NOT a coward because he committed suicide. You're judging this act within the confines of "normal" standards, which renders the basis of your observation ILLOGICAL. Pull your head out of your ass and grow up, already. That said, I'm sure Mr. Thompson would agree that I've already wasted too many words on you.
Buy the ticket....take the ride
The man was a walking quote if u ask me but the one I try to incorporate into my daily to-do and no one has mentioned is "it's betree to be shot out of a cannonbthan squeezed out of a tube." gets me every time, truer words....
Hey, I was just reading the great shark hunt and wrote down a quote i liked on my bookmark and then left the book in a cab. can someone help? It ended with something like "I am going to live my life a new gig everyday, that ends tonight and starts tomorrow"... anyone?
The Nixon I remembered was absolutely humorless; I couldn't imagine him laughing at anything except maybe a paraplegic who wanted to vote Democratic but couldn't quite reach the lever on the voting machine." Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72'
"At the top of the mountain, we are all snow leopards." -HST
I am 60 this year. It was The Wave Speech, without a doubt. When I read it I was 25, and I hoped with all my heart his last line was wrong. But it wasn't. My nephew likes to give me crap about the 60s, which as HST pointed out, ran from about 1964-1973. He has no frickin' idea what a different time and space it was. Maybe it will come back someday.
great 10. to put a top 10 is relative to the reader, of course, but almost every time I search for HST quotes I get the same cliche and redundant few that everyone knows. thank you for the wider selection and wisdom from all aspects of Hunter's writing.
My fav is "For those of us who have been up all night, we were in no mood for coffee and doughnuts"
Well what are your top 10 quotes then?
Good quotes, but top 10, no way.
Well I read somewhere that Thompson once said that if he didn't think he was capable of committing suicide at any time he'd feel trapped. You kind of have to agree with that.
One of my favorite more meaningless quotes is this one from The Curse of Lono: "How many times had he stood calmly back there on the duckboards and listened to respectable-looking people talk about raping the hotel penguins?"
The thing about suicide and it's relationship to existential philosophy is that as soon as one accepts that suicide is a legitimate choice then by not taking that route one chooses life. That said suicide must always be on the table, take it off and what you have is fucking suburbia, playing it safe. In other words not living.
holy jesus! what are these goddamn animals!
Did you see what god just did to use man.....?
"What Leary never learned is that you can get a lot higher without drugs than with them...and neither have i for that matter."
DoomedGen - 2009-03-19 21:22:43 I only wish he had stayed around long enough to see what this country was capable of.... Hmmm I am not too sure that he would have wanted to do that... 67 years of american bullshit is enough for anyone. In fact it is hard to take the above comment as anything less than ironic.
i'm trying to find one from hells angels, i think, something about "as it were the crazies recognize each other" or so. anybody know it verbatim?
"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!'" Suicide is ones choice, and you haven't lived the life of that person to say, "You can't do that." Until you can step into their mind, go through their circumstances and brave what they have, then you don't have a right to judge. IMHO.
actually good quotes, but i expected more from his insight from him, not quotes about the decades he lived he writes about the times, not himself
The only reason why HST committed suicide was because he did everything possible with life and was bored with it. It makes sense in his way of thinking.
we better get some golf shoes, or we'll never make it outta here alive!
this man is by far the realist writer of the 20th century
I personally like the Who Is The Happier Man Question Quote... Who is the happier man? He who has braved the storm of life and lived...or he who stayed securely on the shore and merely existed?
" It never got Weird enough for me"
personally i think this list should have "you fiend" on it. thats just my oppinion.
i really don't think HST would care what you fools are all squabbling about
how about a comment from the fckin lawyer man?????
I am only 45 years of age. however, having made it through the late 70's and 80's. i feel that this man speaks for all mankind, whatever generation he is a product of. Wake up America
man i fucking love Hunter S. and his prose. I agree this nation needs ten more Hunter Thompsons. My favorite thing about this guy is that his death wish was to be cremated and have his ashes shot out of a cannon. If that's not fucking badass then i don't know what is. I'm going to have my ashes formed into a .308 round and pay an extremist assasin to shoot Hugo Chavez or akmidinijad right between into their tyrant skulls.
the one about herpes is one of the best things ive ever read
"You're going to need plenty of legal advice before this thing is over. As your attorney, I advise you to rent a very fast car with no top. And you'll need the cocaine. Tape recorder for special music. Acapulco shirts. Get the hell out of L.A. for at least 48 hours. Blows my weekend." - F
How can you call Thompson a coward for committing suicide. Do we not all have fears? The only thing that man feared was losing control over his own life. I think suicide was a fitting ending to his ride.
In the wilderness,the one-eyed pig is king---it never got weird enough for me....5 yrs today,RIP my man
i think often we forget that sometimes some people don't need the common motive of society to negate their own direction in the world. sometimes people just do things because they are there to do. there is no motive, just the releasing of the arrow. you pick up a gun, scream at the fly on the wall, drink your shot and pull the trigger. a simple act, you create a situation and live in that situation. that's who hunter was. he went out the same way hey drank a beer, and with little more thought... as it should have been. with hunter, all bets were off the minute he woke up in the morning.
Hunter will always stay in my mind, he will never be gone... just like a gonzo tatto on my arm...
Hunter S. Thompson B-) aka The Goofy Rat :-D You Can Run, But You'll Only Die Tired :-P AFFF
You cannot forget one of my favorites," Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music, and never forget you're from a long line of truth seekers , warriors and lovers." ~RIP HST~
WHEN THE GOING GET'S WIERD. THE WIERD TURN PRO. H.S.T.
If ever there was a man so brilliant, so hated, so adored Body: A man with limitless contextual knowledge, unsurpassed syntactical resources, so fast and furiously funny and brutally blunt with his words. A man you'd never have the balls or luck to encounter. Someone your parents would have no choice but to hold the utmost destain for yet your children will read about as we have read about Poe or Hawthorn or Hemingway. The only man I can think of that has the most tremendous knack for excess and endulgance on All levels. A friend to the stars, an enimy to lawmen, a menace to society, an Idol to generations of the 'every-man', the Joe, John, Tom, Dick and Harry. The Only emperor to his own empire. The real life frankenstein, a monster of hs own creation, forced, by his own doing to uphold an image of a man, a monster, a genius, an enigma in the public eye. A whiskey drinkin, herb smoking, coke tootin', eather sniffn', acid droppin', ketamine downing, fast car driving, Harley speeding, demon child from Louisville Kentuckys Highlands... I can only hope to become this man. He is Hunter Stockton Thompson. If you would like to talk about or have questions about HST, contact me @ www.myspace.com/sinatracide
A chicken bone in the throat of all decent people ....
Never fire a warning shot. It is a waste of ammunition. HST
"We never made it to the university because Sala had an epileptic fit and we had to turn around. I was shaken up, but he refused to let me drive." The Rum Diary
RIP. hunter u will be missed
What year did he say "BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE"?
that 2005 quote was especially shitty, and besides that it was his recycled stuff from his hells angels book. more specifically, its more like recycled, recycled shit. look harder next time it shouldnt be that difficult.
The title of the article HST wrote in Rolling Stone around the time Ford Pardoned Nixon was one of my favorites. Summed it all up perfectly: "The Scum also Rises" Thank you Hunter.
HST was not always the person he became - my personal favorite quote has always been, "I need beaches, and blackness, and moonlit nakedness."
Who is the better man? He who has braved the storms of life and truly lived or he who has stayed firmly on shore and merely existed.
TO; Sambeaux - 2008-01-14 16:58:23 (I bought and read every book Hunter ever wrote...then lost all respect for him when he wimped out and committed suicide like a coward.)---then you truly did not know the mind of Thompson and his remaining days...fuck you and your coward accusations
him and Abby Hoffman were my hero's because they were to weird to live but were to rare to die
Nice, but the best quote isnt in the top ten OR in any comment, so here it is: “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit…what a ride!’” ~Hunter S. Thompson
"All energies flow according to the whims of the great magnet. What a fool i was to defy him." i'm not sure if this only appears in the movie (FNL) or also in the book.
"Order some golf shoes, otherwise we'll never get out of this place alive. Impossible to walk in this muck, no footing at all"
Tell me about the f**king golf shoes!?!?
"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.... In retrospect, McGovern made some mistakes, but they pale in comparison to what Nixon does every day, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus! How low do you have to stoop in this country to become president?"
#07 Where would we be if this could happen in our society???? The truth is a very powerful tool, and a dangerous also. I say go for it. The TRUTH!
This is an absolute bullshit compilation. Love the guy , do the research and then get back to us.
@Sambeaux's situation, anyone who took offense to his initial comment involving the cowardly act of suicide, check out Sam's 2nd comment further down. The world should have rattled with madness after reading the words of H.S.T., instead his readers, stoned in our bedrooms, share in His beautiful dream as we trudge mindlessly into the rat race. Maybe we'll get our idealistic 20's with sex, drugs and alcohol, as we quietly rampage through Corporate Coffee shops, Corporate Record stores, Corporate music stores... Wal-Mart, wherever we buy red, white and blue products washed clean of some 6 year old kids sweat. Onwards we trod, inspired by a bold life but content to be stoned in our apartments. Then one day we wake up with a mortgage, a fat wife and 2.5 kids... So it goes... "Oh ignorant youth, the world is not a joyous place. The time has come for you to dispense with the frivolous pleasures of childhood and get down to honest toil until you are sixty-five. Then and only then can you relax and collect your social security and live happily until the time of your death." - Open Letter to the Youth of Our Nation, H.S.T.
Awesome quotes. Please check out my Hunter S Thompson T-shirts These are the most wickedly beautiful Hunter S Thompson shirts available!
Check out Smoking in Bathrooms on Amazon. The writer, Muldoon, obviously has read a lot of Thompson.
I always liked how he referred to Hubert Humphrey's campaigning style as like "a rat in heat".
The wave speech- easily hst's best piece. Captures a whole epoch perfectly.
Although I wouldn't condone using drugs as he did, there is still alot to be learned from what he says. A friend told me of him and then that friend was taken. I have been reading Hunter's quotes and I can say he was a wise man, one that could see what the blind day walkers of normal society can't.
If I ever met Thompson, or any of the like, I would tell him to just shut the fuck up. He is such a sensationalised twat. His adherents act like his quotes are the word of god, when he didn't know anything more than anyone else about life. He was too weak to face reality, so he turned to a hundred different crutches in the form of drugs to avoid life.
Thompson influenced the past few generations with his invention of Gonzo Journalism. His work and antics will live on to influence even more generations to come. I paid tribute to the man and his work with my portrait and article on my artist's blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-memoriam-hunter-s-thompson.html
The movie fear and loathing set my recovery back 10 years
Any time I read his material it has a strange effect on me that triggers a binge, nearly in rehab
"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man" HST Wrong by more than some 300 years. Nobody fucking reads, anymore! “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.” Samuel Johnson quotes (English Poet, Critic and Writer. 1709-1784).
Extend the list 1000 and you'd still run short of culminating all his greatest sayings. The man was decades ahead of his time and his messages will echo for centuries yet.
RIP Hunter,---You changed the world and opened doors for so many souls who without you would have been left alone and in the dark Montgomery Triangle is Awesome!
The warriors are all leaving us . . . Thompson, Carlin . . . Who will carry on in their spirit? Who's got the guts today, people???
Here's hoping The Rum Diary movie lives up to my hopes. Miss you, Mr. Thompson sir. Found some Rum Diary movie quotes, trying to compare to the novel (obsessive I know, since I'm going to see it tonight anyway). I know this was a labor of love for Depp, let's hope that comes through on the screen...
words straight from a legend. long live HST
Its not an adventure if you know you're gonna get there...not a HST quote--just my personal philosophy. A philosophy built in no small part through my happy, gluttinous, spun out consumption of all things Thompson. All respect to you Hunter--wherever and whatever you are. You leave a legacy of Americana...of the meaning of liberty in a free society and of just what it means to be a self made man.
"Eat Shit and Die" is from Bukowski's book "Women," published ten years before "Generation of Swine"
Shame he's left us. One thing for sure he will be giving them hell down there.
Now I've got to go! I got to get to the race!
Hey man, nice shot.
Tattooed on me: "We are all wired into a survival trip, now."