William Melvin Hicks 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. These Bill Hicks quotes will motivate you.
Best Bill Hicks Quotes
- “This is where we are at right now, as a whole. No one is left out of the loop. 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.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Well, look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, 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.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“If you are living for tomorrow, you will always be one day behind.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “No one can give you any answers. There aren’t any. You have to discover for yourself-you must learn to navigate the mystery.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: “Is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey, don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we kill those people.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“It’s all about money, not freedom. If you think you’re free, try going somewhere without money, okay?” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I do not believe making money in order to consume goods is
mankind’s sole purpose on this planet. If you’re wondering
what I believe our purpose on this planet is, I’ll give you
a hint… it has to do with creating and sharing.” ~ Bill Hicks - “I am a misanthropic humanist… Do I like people? They’re great, IN THEORY.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.” ~ Bill Hicks , Bill Hicks quotes on love
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“Don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “The American dream is a crock. Stop wanting everything. Everyone should wear jeans and have three T-shirts, eat rice and beans.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “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?'” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I think it’s interesting how people act on their beliefs. A lot of Christians, for instance, wear crosses around their necks. Nice sentiment, but do you think when Jesus comes back, he’s really going to want to look at a cross?” ~ Bill Hicks
- “It has become more and more obvious that there is one political party in America, and that is The Business Party.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“Eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions god’s infinite love.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “All your beliefs, they’re just that. They’re nothing. They’re how you were taught and raised. That doesn’t make ’em real.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“Children are smarter than any of us. Know how I know that? I don’t know one child with a full-time job and children.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I’m glad mushrooms are against the law, because I took them one time, and you know what happened to me? I laid in a field of green grass for four hours going, “My God! I love everything.” Yeah, now if that isn’t a hazard to our country… How are we gonna justify arms dealing when we realize that we’re all one?” ~ Bill Hicks
- “You know all the money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense every year? Trillions of dollars? Correct? Trillions. Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, not one, we could, as one race, explore outer space together in peace forever” ~ Bill Hicks
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“It’s an insane world, and I’m proud to be a part of it.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “The puppet on the right shares my beliefs, the puppet on the left is more to my liking. Hey…there’s one guy holding up both!” ~ Bill Hicks
- “And on the seventh day, god stepped back and said and said, “This is my creation, perfect in every way… oh, dammit I left all this pot all over the place. Now they’ll think I want them to smoke it… Now I have to create Republicans.”” ~ Bill Hicks
- “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.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I don’t care if you’re obscene, filthy, horrendous — as long as you’re honest.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “People tell me, ‘Bill, let it go. The Kennedy assassination was years ago. It was just the assassination of a President and the hijacking of our government by a totalitarian regime – who cares? Just let it go.’ I say, ‘All right then. That whole Jesus thing? Let it go! It was 2,000 years ago! Who cares?'” ~ Bill Hicks
- “All governments are lying cocksuckers.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I’m an American who loves an America which doesn’t exist, which is a land of freedom and free ideas.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“I’m tired of this back-slappin’ “isn’t humanity neat” bullshit. We’re a virus with shoes.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “How many people disapprove of the job the Conservatives are doing? Seventy percent. Of those same people, how many will vote for them again? …Seventy percent. What the fuck? Where did they take this poll, at an S&M parlor?” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I need my sleep. I need about eight hours a day, and about ten at night.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “There is a 3rd point of view on the gun control issue – those who I refer to as THE VICTIMS – but they remain strangely silent.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “If you’re so pro-life, do me a favor: don’t lock arms and block medical clinics. If you’re so pro-life, lock arms and block cemeteries.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“Oh sorry, I was taking life seriously.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “That’s starting to depress me about UFOs. The fact that they cross galaxies…and always end up in places like Fyfe, Alabama.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I ascribe to Mark Twain’s theory that the last person who should be President is the one who wants it the most. The one who should be picked is the one who should be dragged kicking and screaming into the White House.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I believe that God left certain drugs growing naturally upon our planet to help speed up and facilitate our evolution.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Christianity has a built-in defense system: anything that questions a belief, no matter how logical the argument is, is the work of Satan by the very fact that it makes you question a belief. It’s a very interesting defense mechanism and the only way to get by it — and believe me, I was raised Southern Baptist — is to take massive amounts of mushrooms, sit in a field, and just go, “Show me.”.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I go to dance clubs…about once a year just to justify the other 364 days I spend in my apartment going ‘God, what idiots!'” ~ Bill Hicks
- “They proved that if you quit smoking, it will prolong your life. What they haven’t proved is that a prolonged life is a good thing. I haven’t seen the stats on that yet.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“Laughter makes the bitter swallowing of truth, for some, a little easier.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “People are bringing shotguns to UFO sightings in Fife, Alabama. I asked a guy, “Why do you bring a gun to a UFO sighting?” Guy said, “Way-ul, we didn’ wanna be ab-duc-ted.” If I lived in Fife, Alabama, I would be on my hands and knees every night praying for abduction.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “It’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on personal freedom.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “If you don’t think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CD’s and burn them.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “The waitress comes over to me like, ‘What’chu readin’ for?’ I had never been asked that. Not ‘What am I reading?’ but ‘What am I reading for?’ Goddammit, you stumped me. Hmm, why do I read? I suppose I read for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones being so I don’t end up being a… waffle waitress.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I love the Pope, I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three feet of bullet proof plexi-glass. That’s faith in action folks! You know he’s got God on his side.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“I’m just trying to rid the world of all these fevered egos that are tainting our collective unconscious.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx, the runner and health-nut dude. The plot thickens.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I don’t mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that’s how it comes out.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I was told when I grew up I could be anything I wanted: a fireman, a policeman, a doctor – even President, it seemed. And for the first time in the history of mankind, something new, called an astronaut. But like so many kids brought up on a steady diet of Westerns, I always wanted to be the avenging cowboy hero – that lone voice in the wilderness, fighting corruption and evil wherever I found it, and standing for freedom, truth and justice. And in my heart of hearts I still track the remnants of that dream wherever I go, in my endless ride into the setting sun.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I don’t get along with anything, I really don’t…I’m, I’m, maybe I’m just a, you know, incredibly tasteful human being.” ~ Bill Hicks
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“Sometimes my dad even gets on this kick–‘You hate this country’….I have to tell him…I just hate being lied to.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Do I have a message? Yes, I do. Here’s my message: as scary as the world is – and it is – it is merely a ride …” ~ Bill Hicks
- “Shut up! Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control. Here’s Love Connection. Watch this and get fat and stupid.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “I believe we all have the Voice of Reason inside us…to gently lead us out of our own self-created hells.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “When two or more people agree on an issue, I form on the other side.” ~ Bill Hicks
- “People say to me, Hey, Bill, the war made us feel better about ourselves. Really? What kind of people are these with such low self-esteem that they need a war to feel better about themselves? May I suggest, instead of a war to feel better about yourself, perhaps… sit-ups? Maybe a fruit cup? Eight glasses of water a day?” ~ Bill Hicks
- “How do I know the Bible isn’t the word of God? Well if it was the word of God it would be clear and easy to understand…considering God was the creator of LANGUAGE!” ~ Bill Hicks
- “You know what I hate about working? Bosses…The very idea that ANYONE could be my boss, well…I think you see the conflict.” ~ Bill Hicks
