Gambling can turn into a dangerous two-way street when you least expect it. Weird things happen suddenly, and your life can go all to pieces.
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not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the harsh realities of growing up in a repressive regime, criticizing those who sacrifice their freedoms for false security.
Hunter S. Thompson's quote illustrates the struggles faced by individuals in a totalitarian society, particularly those who value their freedom and autonomy. He expresses disdain for those who willingly give up their rights for the illusion of safety, highlighting the moral cowardice of conforming to oppressive regimes. Thompson’s perspective resonates with the themes of resistance to tyranny and the importance of personal freedom, making it a poignant commentary on human rights and societal values.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on civil liberties, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of resisting oppressive government actions.
More from Hunter S. Thompson
All quotes →As things stand now, I am going to be a writer. I'm not sure that I'm going to be a good one or even a self-supporting one, but until the dark thumb of fate presses me to the dust and says 'you are nothing', I will be a writer.
Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach.
There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.
Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.
When you write for a living and you can't do anything else, you know that sooner or later that the deadline is going to come screaming down on you like a goddamn banshee. There's no avoiding it...So one day you just don't appear at the El Adobe bar anymore; you shut the door, paint the windows black, rent an electric typewriter and become the monster you always were - the writer.
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He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
I hold that without truth and nonviolence there can be nothing but destruction of humanity.
If you want to be free, be free, because there's a million things to be.
By mere burial man arrives not at bliss; and in the future life, throughout its whole infinite range, they will seek for happiness as vainly as they sought it here, who seek it in aught else than that which so closely surrounds them here - the Infinite
The present moment is the only moment available to us and it is the door to all other moments.
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.