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.
The highways are crowded with people who drive as if their sole purpose in getting behind the wheel is to avenge every wrong done them by man, beast or fate. The only thing that keeps them in line is their fear of death, jail and lawsuits.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on human behavior and motivation, suggesting that many people are driven by a desire for revenge and fear of consequences.
Hunter S. Thompson's quote critiques the aggressive and often reckless driving behaviors displayed by individuals on the road. It implies that people are often motivated by personal grievances and a desire for retribution, rather than a sense of responsibility or respect for others. This behavior is tempered only by the fear of severe repercussions, such as death or legal consequences, highlighting a raw aspect of human nature and societal norms.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about road rage and its psychological implications.
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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The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it.
What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person. But that need not worry the seeker. When there is honest effort, it will be realised that what appears to be different truths are like apparently different countless leaves of the same tree.
I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.
Everybody since the '60s has been saying the nation is a fiction - the nation is an imaginary unity - but people didn't connect the dots and say all human endeavours sprang from the same principle.
That saints will aid if men will call; For the blue sky bends over all!
I'm almost like three people. There's me the, Dolly, the person. There's me, the star. And then there's me, the manager.