“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Ah, Hunter S. Thompson was a character and definitely a talented writer – here is a top ten list of quotes from his work (which I don’t completely agree are the ten best, but there are more good ones in the comments). 

My personal favorite (from The Rum Diary):

“Happy,” I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. Most people who deal in words don’t have much faith in them and I am no exception — especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they’re scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.”

Although this one isn’t bad either (and more suited to the current political climate):

“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.”

- from Extreme Behavior in Aspen.