William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material, encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy, was controversial, and often steeped in dark comedy. He criticized consumerism, superficiality and banality within the media and popular culture, which he characterized as oppressive tools of the ruling class that keep people "stupid and apathetic". (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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All drugs should be legal. War is wrong. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer. Thank you. I'll be here all week.
All your beliefs, they're just that. They're nothing. They're how you were taught and raised. That doesn't make 'em real.
As long as one person lives in darkness then it seems to be a responsibility to tell other people.
Do a commercial, you're off the artistic roll call, every word you say is suspect, you're a corporate whore and end of story.
Do you think when Jesus comes back he wants to see a cross? It's like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on.
I believe it is our own misperceptions of who we really are that leads to every self-created hell you'll find in this world.
I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.
I believe the cost of life is death and we will all pay that in full. Everything else should be a gift.
I do not believe making money in order to consume goods is mankind's sole purpose on this planet.
I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.
I'll tell you who the threat to the status quo is in this country. It's us. That's why they... keep you afraid... impotent.
I'm an American who loves an America which doesn't exist, which is a land of freedom and free ideas.
I'm just saying if you're gonna have a war against drugs, have 'em against all drugs, including alcohol.
If you are living for tomorrow, you will always be one day behind.
It has become more and more obvious that there is one political party in America, and that is The Business Party.
It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom.
Laughter makes the bitter swallowing of truth, for some, a little easier.
Not all drugs are good. Some are great.
Our next Cold War ought to be with ourselves... After all, who poses the biggest danger to the American environment? We do.
People always snap and think they're Jesus. How come no one ever snaps and thinks they're Buddha?
That's starting to depress me about UFOs. The fact that they cross galaxies... and always end up in places like Fyfe, Alabama.
The American dream is a crock. Stop wanting everything. Everyone should wear jeans and have three T-shirts, eat rice and beans.
The voice of reason is in us all...and everyone can recognize it because it makes sense and everyone benefits from it equally.
The worst kind of non-smokers are the ones that come up to you and cough. That's pretty fucking cruel isn't it? Do you go up to cripples and dance too?
There are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.
There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.
To me pornography is... spending all your money and not educating the people in America, but spending it instead on weapons.
Truly, the only stupid people I've ever met, the most absolutely clueless, are the very people that produce television.
Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.
We are experiencing a reality based on a thin veneer of lies and illusions. A world where greed is our God and wisdom is sin, where division is key and unity is fantasy, where the ego-driven cleverness of the mind is praised, rather than the intelligence of the heart.
We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.
We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are.
We're a virus with shoes.
When you're... stepping over a guy on the sidewalk... does it ever occur to you to think, 'Wow. Maybe our system doesn't work?'
You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because, um – they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right?
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(February 26 is also the birthday of Victor Hugo.)
Categories: Bill Hicks, Quotes of the day
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