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.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
Old elephants limp off to the hills to die; old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the inevitable decline of life and the contrasting ways different cultures confront mortality.
In this poignant statement, Hunter S. Thompson draws a parallel between the natural end of life seen in elephants, who retreat to privacy in their final moments, and the more reckless approach of some Americans, who engage in self-destructive behavior through their obsession with material possessions, like cars. It serves as a commentary on how society often shuns the acceptance of death, illustrating a stark contrast between natural withdrawal and reckless abandon in the face of mortality.
Themes
MortalityLifeRecklessnessOblivionSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on societal pressures and the pursuit of material wealth, this quote could emphasize the dangers of such attitudes.
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.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach.
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There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.
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Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.
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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.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
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I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts — just as I would have if I had made more close friends.
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If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
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