Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Quotes – Unforgettable Lines from the Classic Novel

We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers… and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. – Raoul Duke

And there was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. – Raoul Duke

To be honest, I’m not really sure what stopped all of a sudden that night. Maybe… the drugs stopped working and the sh*t finally got very real. – Raoul Duke

Too weird to live, too rare to die. – Raoul Duke

The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. – Raoul Duke

We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave… So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark— that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. – Raoul Duke

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. – Raoul Duke

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Quotes – Unforgettable Lines from the Classic Novel part 2

The clock is talking to us, saying, ‘Tick, tick, tick. Your life is short and you can’t breathe underwater.’ Tick, tick, tick. – Raoul Duke

The one thing that really gets me, though, is that goddamn suitcase and the fact that I never did unpack it. I should’ve at least dumped the drugs, but I’ve never been able to resist the lure of a good narcotic. – Raoul Duke

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. – Raoul Duke

I had two visions of my death – one they’d find my brains on the roof, the other they’d find them on the floor. – Raoul Duke

It’s not a job, it’s a calling. – Dr. Gonzo

We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60s. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling ‘consciousness expansion’ without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously. – Raoul Duke

In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. – Raoul Duke

The TV news is like a monstrous car wreck. No matter how bad it is, you still have to look. – Raoul Duke

Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas. – Raoul Duke

Hallucinations are bad enough. But after a while you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. – Raoul Duke

We had all these tapes of the ’68 convention…I’d watched them over and over until the fucking TV burned in— I knew every face by heart. And then, one day, I woke up and they had peeled off the political layer and transported themselves into my simple life. – Raoul Duke

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. – Raoul Duke

Maybe it meant something. Maybe not. In the long run, who knows? Certainly not me. – Raoul Duke

We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. – Raoul Duke

The trip was to be a classic affirmation of everything right and true in the national character. A gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country. – Raoul Duke

In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely. – Raoul Duke

There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge. – Raoul Duke

Like most monsters, he’d been created inadvertently by some otherwise well-meaning and innocent folks who’d just been trying to get by. – Raoul Duke

There is no way to explain the terror I felt except to say that it made me sick to the very pit of my soul. – Raoul Duke

I understood the message well enough: the drugs that had pumped through my system like demon passion, and that I had done strange and terrible things to acquire, were, in the end, pointless. – Raoul Duke

What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light, and nobody wants to be caught with their pants down. – Dr. Gonzo

Drugs are a bet with your mind. – Raoul Duke

The brutality and uncouth nature of this madness is indescribable. – Raoul Duke

When the sun shines on a rooftop, it feels like a hot stove element. – Raoul Duke

I tried not to think too much about the terrible things that might happen when I was totally out of my mind. – Raoul Duke

I knew at that moment our quest was no longer merely for knowledge, but also for survival. – Raoul Duke

There was no sound in the car but the roar of the wind. – Raoul Duke

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. – Raoul Duke

It was around eleven in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief; black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. – Raoul Duke

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. – Raoul Duke

There was nothing but bad news in the air. A Pink-Taco vibe was definitely taking over. – Raoul Duke

Freedom was out there, but it was almost too much to hope for. – Raoul Duke

The only people we found were young boys, who wanted pick us up in their strange cars and do odd sexual things. – Raoul Duke

There I was, sneering and giggling, just like that strange old man I used to know in New York. – Raoul Duke

Without the drugs, I think most of my energy would be spent trying to convince myself I didn’t need them. – Raoul Duke

I cursed them all again and again, yelling at them from the car window as I drove out of sight. – Raoul Duke

Heading south, we raced like fevered ants across the desert. – Raoul Duke

We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high-water mark–that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. – Raoul Duke