Hunter S. Thompson Would Have Been 73 Today

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Graphic: NORML

​Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the legendary creator of Gonzo journalism, would have been 73 years old today.

Thompson’s Gonzo style of reporting involved immersing himself in the action to such an extent that he became the central figure in his own stories.
He was known for his savagely uncompromising writing style; his heroic intake of marijuana, psychedelics, and other drugs; his almost complete contempt for authority and rules; and his anarchist views.
Thompson became best known for his 1971 book, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, a strongly autobiographical tale of a drug-fueled Hollywood-to-Sin-City road trip with his 300-pound Samoan attorney.

“We had two bags of grass, 75 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 book was later made into a hit movie starring Johnny Depp as Thompson.
His other books include Hell’s Angels, Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72, The Great Shark Hunt, The Curse of Lono, Generation Of Swine, Songs Of The Doomed, Better Than Sex, and Kingdom Of Fear.
Born on July 18, 1937, he died on February 20, 2005, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”

Photo: The Selvedge Yard

“The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson

Photo: The Selvedge Yard

“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.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson

Photo: The Selvedge Yard

“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

Photo: Lex Patriates

“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

Photo: The Selvedge Yard

“Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas … with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson
“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson

Photo: The Selvedge Yard

“Jesus, man! You don’t look for acid! Acid finds you when *it* thinks you’re ready.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson
Photo: Corbis

“America… just a nation of 200 million used car salesmen with all the money we need
to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world
who tries to make us uncomfortable.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson
“You worthless, acid-sucking piece of illiterate shit.
Don’t ever send this kind of brain-damaged swill in here again.”
~ From a pre-packaged rejection letter Hunter S. Thompson sent to Rolling Stone

Photo: The Selvedge Yard

“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.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson

Photo: Mind Inversion

“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

Photo: It Rawks

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson
Photo: Preds On The Glass

“Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm and lived
or he who has stayed securely on the shore and merely existed?”
~ Hunter S. Thompson

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