Hunter S. Thompson

"Politics is the art of controlling your environment."

"'Crazy' is a term of art; 'Insane' is a term of law. Remember that, and you will save yourself a lot of trouble."

"If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."

"Truth is weirder than any fiction I've seen."

"Marathon running, like golf, is a game for players, not winners. That is why Callaway sells golf clubs and Nike sells running shoes. But running is unique in that the world's best racers are on the same course, at the same time, as amateurs, who have as much chance of winning as your average weekend warrior would scoring a touchdown in the NFL."

"As long as I'm learning something, I figure I'm OK - it's a decent day."

"Buy the ticket, take the ride."

"February is always a bad month for TV sports. Football is gone, basketball is plodding along in the annual midseason doldrums, and baseball is not even mentioned."

"Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common."

"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."

"I have always loved blizzards, if only because of the driving experience - which is definitely an acquired taste."

"I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory... And why not? Victory is good for you, and don't let anybody tell you different."

"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."

"Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning."

"Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is."

"Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long."

"Of all the men that have run for president in the twentieth century, only George McGovern truly understood what a monument America could be to the human race."

"One of the most basic factors in sports is that winning becomes a habit, and losing is the same way. When failure starts to feel normal in your life or your work or even your darkest vices, you won't have to go looking for trouble, because trouble will find you. Count on it."

"Rude people will now & then ask me why I think I know so much about Politics. I tell them it's because I'm Smart... But that is a lie: The real reason is because I'm an incurable Gambling addict."

"The best thing about the Kentucky Derby is that it is only two minutes long. It is the quickest event in sports, except for Sumo-wrestling & Mike Tyson fights. Maybe Drag-racing is quicker, but I have never been attracted to it."

"The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs."

"There are many harsh lessons to be learned from the gambling experience, but the harshest one of all is the difference between having Fun and being Smart."

"There might be some serious fun in politics."

"Victory is a fleeting thing in the gambling business. Today's winners are tomorrow's blinking toads, dumb beasts with no hope."

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

"Yes sir, I am a tortured man for all seasons, as they say, and I have powerful friends in high places. Birds sing where I walk, and children smile when they see me coming."