Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!
Not Hunter S. Thompson — an anonymous internet sayingAnonymousEarliest known: an unattributed Usenet signature, October 1998
No one has found this line in Thompson’s writings. Quote Investigator ↗ traces it to an unattributed 1998 Usenet signature that ended “shouting ‘GERONIMO’.” Over the next few years it grew into the “WOW — What a Ride!” version, and it was credited to Thompson from March 2000 with no source given.
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” Anonymous. The earliest known version is an unattributed Usenet signature from October 1998 (the "GERONIMO" version). It is often credited to Hunter S. Thompson, but it is not found in his writings, per Quote Investigator.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Hunter S. Thompson. Use the credit shown above instead.
Can you use it?
? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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In context
Evoking the themes of mortality, courage and happiness. Theme: "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The earliest version anyone has found
Earliest match
Signature line in Usenet newsgroup rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys
Date
12 October 1998
Credited to
No one (posted by Jeff McRae, with no author named)
First Thompson credit
March 2000, rec.crafts.textiles.quilting signature
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, shouting ‘GERONIMO’.
1998 “GERONIMO” version
Text as transcribed by Quote Investigator. The popular wording, with “a pretty and well preserved body,” “totally worn out” and “WOW — What a Ride!”, appears in a January 2004 Usenet post, which also credits no one. Quote Investigator calls the 1998 post the earliest match it located, not the definitive origin.
Oct. 1998: the earliest match Quote Investigator located is an unattributed Usenet signature ending “shouting ‘GERONIMO’” (Quote Investigator ↗).
Mar. 2000: a signature in rec.crafts.textiles.quilting credits the line to “Hunter S. Thompson”. In Jan. 2004 the “WOW — What a Ride!” wording appears with no credit (Quote Investigator ↗).
Garson O’Toole told the American Dialect Society list that he had checked Thompson’s Gonzo and The Proud Highway and found no trace of the saying. He invited anyone to find a version earlier than 1998 (ADS-L ↗).
A claim that the line ran in Cycle magazine in February 1982 under Bill McKenna’s name comes from a 2007 web snapshot, and no one has verified it (Quote Investigator ↗).
The wording has no identified author or published work. Its earliest known form is an anonymous Usenet signature from 1998, so quotle.info asserts no copyright status. It is not from The Proud Highway (1997) or any other Thompson book.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Who gets the credit, and why it's wrong
Copied from one email signature, poster and forum post to the next, this saying has collected several famous names. None of them comes with a source.
✕
Most common creditHunter S. Thompson Unsupported
His name first appears with the line in a March 2000 quilting-newsgroup signature, and a February 2004 trucking-newsgroup post credits him with the “WOW — What a Ride!” version. Quote Investigator found the line in none of his writings and calls the attribution unsupported (Quote Investigator ↗).
✕
Quote sitesHunter S. Thompson, The Proud HighwayNo match
Goodreads credits the line to Thompson’s The Proud Highway, a user-added quote that Goodreads says it does not verify (Goodreads ↗). O’Toole checked that book and found no trace of the saying (ADS-L ↗). The book does contain a 1955 passage by the teenage Thompson on a related theme, asking who is happier, the man who “braved the storm of life” or the one who stayed safely on shore. The wording is quite different.
✕
Some websitesBill McKenna (motorcycle racer) Uncertain
A University of Minnesota quotations page credited McKenna by February 2004. A 2007 site said the line ran in Cycle magazine in February 1982, but Quote Investigator has not verified that, and it calls the link to McKenna uncertain (Quote Investigator ↗).
✕
Forum guessErma Bombeck Guess
On a phrases.org.uk forum, one poster guessed that “What a Ride!” was Bombeck’s. Another replied that newspaper archives show the phrase much older than Bombeck (phrases.org.uk ↗).
✓Quote Investigator concludes that the saying was circulating by October 1998 and remains anonymous: the Thompson credit is unsupported and the McKenna link is uncertain (Quote Investigator ↗).
Context
A signature line that kept changing
The saying spread the way internet folklore does, through signature lines. The 1998 Jeep-newsgroup version ended with a shout of “GERONIMO”. By 1999 a post in the same group had added the word “defiantly”, and a 2002 quotations page had a variant that mentioned “leaking oil”. In January 2004 the familiar “WOW — What a Ride!” ending appeared, and later that year mothers’ forums were trading jokey versions about chocolate and margaritas.
Thompson’s fast, reckless public image made him an easy name to attach. But Quote Investigator’s search of his books found nothing, and the version most people share today, with its “cloud of smoke”, is a later polish of an anonymous signature.
Circulating by October 1998; creator anonymous.
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The author
About Anonymous (Usenet saying)
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Anonymous (Usenet saying)
Earliest known version: Usenet signature line, 12 October 1998
The line first turns up as an unattributed signature in a 1998 post to the Usenet newsgroup rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys, signed by Jeff McRae, who credited no author. Copied from signature to signature, it picked up new endings and new credits: Hunter S. Thompson from 2000, and later the motorcycle racer Bill McKenna. Quote Investigator concludes that the saying remains anonymous.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Quote Investigator
Earliest match located: Jeff McRae, signature line (no author credited), Usenet newsgroup rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys, October 12, 1998, as reported in Garson O’Toole, “Quote Origin: Life Is Not a Journey To the Grave With the Intention of Arriving Safely,” Quote Investigator, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/06/26/safe-journey/.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride!’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/life-should-not-be-a-journey-to-the-grave-with-the/