"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

"Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girl friend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain."
— Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him."
— Jonathan Swift

"He was a bold man that first ate an oyster."
— Jonathan Swift

"No wise man ever wished to be younger. "
— Jonathan Swift

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it."
— Voltaire

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
— Mark Twain

"The Rumors of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated."
— Mark Twain

"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

"We can't stop here, this is bat country!"
— Hunter S. Thompson

"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."
— 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: A Novel)

"Poor bastard. Wait 'till he sees the bats. "
— Hunter S. Thompson

"I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling."
— Hunter S. Thompson