Quote Origin: Life Is Not a Journey To the Grave With the Intention of Arriving Safely

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Hunter S. Thompson? Bill McKenna? Anonymous?

Blue smoke from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson has received credit for a remark about living an exuberant life and sliding broadside amid a cloud of smoke into the grave. I am skeptical of this ascription because I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has been unable to find a match in the writings of Hunter S. Thompson who ended his life in 2005.

The earliest match located by QI appeared in the Usenet newsgroup rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys in October 1998. The quotation appeared within the signature section of a message from Jeff McRae, and no attribution was listed. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

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”.

Based on current knowledge the saying remains anonymous. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

A partial match with a different meaning appeared in 1899 in “The American Farmer Magazine” of Chicago, Illinois within an article titled “The Riddle of Existence” by Claire K. Alden:2

Life should not be a journey to and fro, to and fro, as so many of us make it. It should be progress, growth, the attainment of knowledge, strength, power, grace, and beauty. Every one should have an object in life, — a worthy object to gain, a goal to reach.

In 1955 when Hunter S. Thompson was seventeen years old he penned the following thematically related passage which was printed in his collection titled “The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955–1967”:3

As an afterthought, it seems hardly proper to write of life without once mentioning happiness; so we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?

In 1998 a close match for the statement under examination appeared in a Usenet message as mentioned previously. The statement appeared in many Usenet messages in subsequent months. In 1999 John Jacott posted a slightly different version with the addition of the word “defiantly”. No attribution was specified:4

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, defiantly shouting “GERONIMO”.

In March 2000 an instance attributed to Hunter S. Thompson appeared in the Usenet newsgroup rec.crafts.textiles.quilting. The quotation appeared within the signature section of a message from Danica Siefken Billingsly:5

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, and shouting GERONIMO!
Hunter S. Thompson

In February 2002 a snapshot was taken of a webpage at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Minnesota at cs.umn.edu. The snapshot was stored in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The webpage listed miscellaneous quotations under the title “Shamelessly Stolen Quotations”. One of the quotations was an anonymous variant with the phrase “leaking oil”:6

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!”
– Unknown (appears all over the place on the web)

In January 2004 an instance with the phrase “WOW — What a Ride!” appeared in Usenet newsgroup rec.crafts.textiles.quilting. No attribution was specified:7

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming — WOW — What a Ride!”

In February 2004 another snapshot was obtained by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine of the webpage titled “Shamelessly Stolen Quotations”. In this snapshot the attribution was updated to credit Bill McKenna who was motorcycle racer:8

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!”
– Bill McKenna

Also, in February 2004 Hunter S. Thompson received credit for the variant with the phrase “WOW — What a Ride!” which was posted in the Usenet newsgroup misc.transport.trucking:9

~Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming — WOW — What a Ride!”
~Words of a famous author and outlaw biker~Hunter S. Thomson~

In December 2004 a message in the Usenet newsgroup alt.mothers contained several additional variants. Here were three:10

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, margarita in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming ~ WOO HOO what a ride!”

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways — Chardonnay in one hand — strawberries in the other — body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming — WOO HOO! What a Ride!

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rathe the goal is to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand — strawberries in the other, screaming ….YAHOOO! That was bitchin!”

A snapshot from velatropa24.com dated July 2007 in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine credited the motorcycle racer Bill McKenna. The quotation supposedly appeared in “Cycle” magazine in February 1982. QI has not verified this claim. A commentator on Reddit stated that the claim was untrue. No page number was specified:11

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!”
Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer, Cycle magazine Feb. 1982

Some have claimed that the quotation appeared in Hunter S Thompson’s books “The Proud Highway” or “Gonzo”. QI has accessed these books, and he was unable to find the quotation.

In conclusion, this saying was circulating by October 1998. The creator remains anonymous. The attribution to Hunter S, Thompson is unsupported, and the linkage to Bill McKenna is uncertain.

Image Notes: Illustration of blue smoke from Stephen Hocking at Unsplash. The image has been cropped.

Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Adam Gee and Daniel Saunders whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.

Update History: On January 6, 2024 the full article was moved from Medium to this website.

  1. Usenet discussion message, Date: Oct 12, 1998, Newsgroup: rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys, From: Jeff McRae, Subject: Your Ultimate Driveway. (Google Groups Search; Accessed June 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  2. 1899 February, The American Farmer Magazine, Volume 5, Number 2, The Riddle of Existence by Claire K. Alden, Quote Page 156, Column 1, The Lindauer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  3. 1997, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955–1967 by Hunter S. Thompson, Series: The Fear and Loathing Letters, Volume 1, Edited by Douglas Brinkley, Year: 1955, Description of Letter: The Spectator “Security”, Start Page 4, Quote Page 5, Villard Books: A Division of Random House, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  4. Usenet discussion message, Date: Aug 7, 1999, Newsgroup: rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys, From: John Jacott, Subject: Bulletproof Bumpers. (Accessed Google Groups on April 12, 2023) link ↩︎
  5. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Mar 11, 2000, 3:00:00 AM, Newsgroup: rec.crafts.textiles.quilting, From: Danica Siefken Billingsly, Subject: Handpiecing ? is it OK to wax thread for handpiecing?. (Google Groups Search; Accessed June 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  6. Website: Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Snapshot date: February 6, 2002, Website Location: Website Location: Department of Computer Science of University of Minnesota, Webpage title: Shamelessly Stolen Quotations, Date on website: April 19, 2001, Website description: Archive of webpages. (Accessed archive.org on June 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  7. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Jan 22, 2004, 11:46:29 PM, Newsgroup: rec.crafts.textiles.quilting, From: Karlee in Kansas, Subject: ATTN Lisa Caryl. (Google Groups Search; Accessed Jun 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  8. Website: Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Snapshot date: February 20, 2004, Website Location: Department of Computer Science of University of Minnesota, Webpage title: Shamelessly Stolen Quotations, Date on website: Oct 21, 2002, Website description: Archive of webpages. (Accessed archive.org on June 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  9. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Feb 28, 2004, 6:10:55 PM, Newsgroup: misc.transport.trucking, From: Roadwytch, Subject: Great Idea From Truckinsp. (Google Groups Search; Accessed Jun 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  10. Usenet discussion message, Timestamp: Dec 26, 2004, 3:37:24 PM, Newsgroup: alt.mothers, From: toto, Subject: Origin of sig quote?. (Google Groups Search; Accessed Jun 26, 2023) link ↩︎
  11. Website: Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Snapshot date: July 7, 2007, Website Location: velatropa24.com, Blog Author: Matthew Dishner, Website description: Archive of webpages. (Accessed archive.org on June 26, 2023) link ↩︎