Dr. Hunter S. Thompson had a lot of cool quotes. Although he was quite the handful, HST has been one of my favorite people for some time. His ability to grab life and just do it causes an admiration. More people should have some of this gusto. It can bring upon some interesting adventures.
This quote comes from Thompson?s book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (published in 1971). The full quote: ?No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride?and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well?maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.?
According to the Urban Dictionary, it simply means: Creating and being involved in a situation that may get you in way over your head but deciding that turning back would be a rather uninteresting option.
I pair the phrase, ?Buy the Ticket; Take the Ride,? with the notion that there are some journeys we just need to take. Some journeys are with ourselves; some with others. Either way, it seems the outcome can be forever or it can go down in flames but, in the end, we come out a different person ? either a lot different or a little different. With love, the internal warnings, the red flags, the concerns never weigh the same as the dopamine rushes, the love-bombing or the bond.
I bought the ticket (and the smiles, the promises, the exorbitant amount of love and admiration) and I took the ride ? to another state. Florida to be exact. But, this is a tale for another time (shared story). A tale to share which will hopefully help anyone who has been on this type of journey or currently going through this type of journey.
As I wandered around the Internet looking for HST quotes, I came across an article by Jack Archer called ?23 Brilliant Life Lessons from Hunter S. Thompson.? You can access the article here: https://airows.com/culture/23-epic-hunter-s-thompson-quotes
As you read through these quotes, you may assume that many of these are for people who do not take real life seriously. I take too much too seriously. But, fortunately, my bohemian and creative side allows for times to remember that life is a fabulous journey and we are the engineers of our own trains. We choose our journeys (consciously and subconsciously) and we choose when to de-board (most of the time). Each moment of our lives are not intended to fit into a nice, neat little bubble of common sense and societal expectations. Sometimes, just sometimes, we have to go off the beaten path, walk to the edge of the cliff and dive without holding our nose. No matter the pain of the crash later, we will come back to the surface and shore as a new version of ourselves. Let life guide you sometimes ? you do not always have to be in control.
Here is the list of quotes:
1.) ?Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.?
2.) ?Writing is the flip side of sex ? it?s only good when it?s over.?
3.) ?Some may never live, but the crazy never die.?
4.) ?Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.?
5.) ?Freedom is something that dies unless it?s used.?
6.) ?Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.?
7.) ?I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they?ve always worked for me.?
8.) ?Take it from me, there?s nothing like a job well done. Except the quiet enveloping darkness at the bottom of a bottle of Jim Beam after a job done any way at all.?
9.) ?A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long.?
10.) ?No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride?and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well?maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.?
11.) ?With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.?
12.) ?It?s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat sh** and die.?
13.) ?I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. My father taught me that, along with a few other things that have kept my life interesting.?
14.) ?If you?re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you?re going to be locked up.?
15.) ?I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.?
16.) ?Good people drink good beer.?
17.) ?A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.?
18.) ?So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed??
19.) ?In a closed society where everybody?s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.?
20.) ?We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.?
21.) If asked if you care about the world?s problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks, he will never ask you again.
22.) ?Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors.?
23.) ?Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex.?
