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.
My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects pride in a life lived boldly, despite its risks, emphasizing personal fulfillment over conventional safety.
Hunter S. Thompson expresses a deep appreciation for his unconventional and risky life choices. He acknowledges that while his path has been anything but safe, the pride and validation he feels from both his life and his relationship with his son make it worthwhile. He recognizes the gravity of his experiences and advises others against following a similar reckless course, showing a sense of responsibility and self-awareness about the impact of one's life choices on others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared at a graduation ceremony to inspire graduates to embrace life's challenges.
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.
Similar quotes
The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes.
She felt so old, so worn out, so far away from the best moments of her life that she even yearned for those that she remembered as the worst… Her heart of compressed ash, which had resisted the most telling blows of daily reality without strain, fell apart with the first waves of nostalgia. The need to feel sad was becoming a vice as the years eroded her. She became human in her solitude.
There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
Man must live, not only exist; he must do, not merely be; he must grow, not just vegetate.
The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others.
O Lord God, we pray that we may be inspired to nobleness of life in the least things. May we dignify all our daily life. May we set such a sacredness upon every part of our life, that nothing shall be trivial, nothing unimportant, and nothing dull, in the daily round.