Hunter S. Thompson, born in 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, was a groundbreaking American journalist and author famed for creating ‘gonzo journalism’.
This highly personal, subjective style of reporting made Thompson a counterculture icon.
His journey began in the U.S. Air Force where he served as a sports editor for a base newspaper.
Thompson garnered attention with his novel “Hell’s Angels” (1967) based on his infiltration of the infamous motorcycle gang.
His larger-than-life persona, characterized by drug-fueled adventures and distaste for authority, shone through in his work.
His seminal piece, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, documented a wild, drug-addled road trip, defining the genre of gonzo journalism and becoming a contemporary classic.
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Thompson continued his unique storytelling with works like “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72” and “Kingdom of Fear”.
His profound quotes on life, fear and death continue to resonate, defining his legacy after his tragic self-inflicted death in 2005.
Best Hunter S Thompson Quotes
Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Old God sure was in a good mood when he made this place. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Don’t judge your taco by its price. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Hope rises and dreams flicker and die. Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Life is beautiful and living is pain. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Have an objective to give your bender a theme. For instance, stalking and killing a wild pig with a bowie knife. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Top Hunter S Thompson Quotes
If you get people asking the wrong questions, you don’t have to worry about the answers. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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.
A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Weird behavior is natural in smart children, like curiosity is to a kitten. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I am a road man for the lords of karma. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. My father taught me that, along with a few other things that have kept my life interesting. ~ 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.
Inspirational Hunter S Thompson Quotes
Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
There is no story unless you’ve written it. ~ 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.
Journalism, to me, is just another drug – a free ride to scenes I’d probably miss if I stayed straight. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
As you were, I was. As I am, you will be. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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.
You won’t find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on 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.
Thoughtful Hunter S Thompson Quotes
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.
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 possibility of physical and mental collapse is now very real. No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind but falling in love and not getting arrested. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Motivational Hunter S Thompson Quotes
Good people drink good beer. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Buy the ticket, take the ride. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I have never believed much in luck, and my sense of humor has tended to walk on the dark side. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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.
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Some may never live, but the crazy never die. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Wise Hunter S Thompson Quotes
Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Liberalism itself has failed, and for a pretty good reason. It has been too often compromised by the people who represented it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
God’s mercy on you degenerate swine. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks of not challenging it are more dangerous, even fatal. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Kill the body and the head will die. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Famous Hunter S Thompson Quotes
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Just sick enough to be totally confident. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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.
Without gambling, I would not exist. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Turn the goddam music up! My heart feels like an alligator! ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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.
The edge, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is the ones who have gone over. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. ~ Hunter S. Thompson
I felt a tremendous distance between myself and everything real. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
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.
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.
Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Inspiring Hunter S Thompson Quotes
I was never trying, necessarily, to be an outlaw. It was just the place in which I found myself. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Life is beautiful and living is pain. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
The brutal reality of politics would be probably intolerable without drugs. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
You can’t hoard fun. It has no shelf life. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
You can’t miss what you never had. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Popular Hunter S Thompson Quotes
On some days you get what you want, and on others, you get what you need. ~ 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.
It was one of those fine little love stories that can make you smile in your sleep at night. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Politics is the art of controlling your environment. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Nixon represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Too weird to live, too rare to die! ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Poor bastard. Wait ’till he sees the bats. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
The downward spiral of Dumbness in America is about to hit a new low. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
This is the fast lane, folks… and some of us like it here. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. ~ 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.
It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Unique Hunter S Thompson Quotes
Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
All energy flows according to the whims of the great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy him. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Call on God, but row away from the rocks. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
It never got weird enough for me. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
With the truth so dull and depressing, the only working alternative is wild bursts of madness and filigree. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I will fight for your right to be weird- just as I know you will fight for mine. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
We are all wired into a survival trip, now. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
Legendary Hunter S Thompson Quotes
I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn’t know I could commit suicide at any time. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
We must ride this strange torpedo out until the end. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
All my life, my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Remembered line from a long- forgotten poem. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
I feel trapped if I know I can’t kill myself at anytime. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
There’s a terrible danger in voting for the lesser of two evils because the parties can set it up that way. ~ Hunter S. Thompson.
So these were the 102 top Hunter S Thompson quotes on journalism, life, death and fear.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Jimi Hendrix quotes and Thomas Paine quotes.
