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Who really said it

Don't aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally

Not Robert Frost — most likely David Frost David Frost 1939–2013 · English broadcaster, journalist & interviewer
Not the poet. The paper trail leads to a broadcaster, and even there it is secondhand. Rights unconfirmed

This is a surname collision. Quote Investigator ↗ found no substantive evidence that the poet Robert Frost ever used the saying and calls the ascription to him probably spurious, pointing instead to the English television host Sir David Frost. The earliest citation anyone has produced is a celebrity-quotation quiz in the Courier-Post of Camden, New Jersey on 2 October 1985, whose answer key credited David Frost. No speech, book, interview or letter of Frost’s has been located as the original, so he is the likely — not the proven — author.

Last verified 9 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Don't aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally” usually credited to the poet Robert Frost, but Quote Investigator found no substantive evidence he said it and calls that ascription probably spurious. The likely originator is the English broadcaster Sir David Frost (1939–2013). The earliest documented citation is a Courier-Post (Camden, New Jersey) quiz of 2 October 1985, which credited David Frost; this wording is fixed in print in Reader's Digest Quotable Quotes (1997), p. 172, which reads "…if you want it: just do what you love and believe in…". No primary source from Frost himself has been located. Via quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Robert Frost. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t establish where this was first published, so there’s no rights status to give. Credit it as shown above — just don’t present it as public domain, and get permission for commercial or published reuse.

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In context

Evoking the world of David Frost — English television host, journalist & writer. Theme: "Don't aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally". 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 "Don't aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally". 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

Where the line actually comes from

Earliest citation
Courier-Post (Camden, New Jersey), 2 October 1985, p. 11D, col. 3
Article
“Out of the mouths of celebrities: Name the famous folks who’ve made some infamous statements” by Jerry Holderman
Popular wording
Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes: Wit and Wisdom for All Occasions (1997), p. 172
Credited to
David Frost, the broadcaster — not Robert Frost, the poet

I think success is a crappy, trendy word. Don’t aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love doing and it will come naturally. Courier-Post, 2 October 1985

This is the fuller 1985 form as transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗ from the Courier-Post quiz, and the version QI recommends using. It differs from the sentence in circulation: 1985 has “what you love doing,” where the familiar version has “what you love and believe in.” Note also that the 1985 text is a newspaper columnist reporting the remark, not a transcript of Frost saying it.

Quote Investigator: Don’t Aim for Success If You Want It

The paper trail

  • 2 October 1985 — the earliest citation on record. A celebrity-quotation quiz by Jerry Holderman in the Courier-Post of Camden, New Jersey credited the remark to the television host and journalist David Frost in its answer section, in the longer form beginning “I think success is a crappy, trendy word.” Quote Investigator transcribes the passage and cites page 11D, column 3 ↗.
  • 23 January 1991 — the wording starts to shift. A profile of a local high-school student in The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey quoted the line as “just do what you love and believe in it, and it will come naturally,” with the student expressly attributing it to David Frost. QI cites the column and page 6 ↗.
  • 1997 — the version you know gets fixed in print. Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes: Wit and Wisdom for All Occasions printed the sentence in essentially its modern form and credited DAVID FROST; QI verified the entry on paper at page 172. The book itself is catalogued by Open Library as a 1997 Reader’s Digest Association edition, Pleasantville, NY ↗.
  • By 2009 — the name changes. Quote Investigator records a tweet of 26 August 2009 carrying the saying under Robert Frost’s name; that is the earliest reassignment to the poet that QI documents, not necessarily the first that occurred. See QI’s chronology ↗.

Rights cannot be settled here, and it would be wrong to claim otherwise. This is certainly not public domain — every documented appearance of the sentence is modern, beginning with the Courier-Post of 2 October 1985 and running through Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes in 1997. But no rights holder can be named either, because the original utterance has never been located: the 1985 and 1991 texts are journalists reporting a remark rather than the work in which it first appeared, and Quote Investigator notes the earliest citations are indirect ↗. Quotle.info therefore asserts no copyright status for this line.

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

Two things are wrong with the version you saw

This quotation is misattributed and reworded. The name on it belongs to the wrong Frost, and the sentence itself is not the earliest recorded form.

Robert Frost (1874–1963) No evidence

Quote Investigator ↗ states it found no substantive evidence that Robert Frost employed this saying, and that the ascription to him is probably spurious — the linkage arising from confusion with another person of the same surname. The earliest reassignment to the poet that QI documents is a tweet of 26 August 2009; every earlier citation names David Frost. Wikiquote’s Robert Frost page ↗ does not carry the line at all.

David Frost (1939–2013) Later variant

The sentence in circulation matches the entry in Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes (1997), not the earliest record. The 1985 Courier-Post text reads “just do what you love doing and it will come naturally,” preceded by “I think success is a crappy, trendy word” — a line the shareable version drops. QI recommends using the 1985 version ↗.

Quote aggregators and social media Unfixed

The error is live in both directions. TheQuotes.net lists the modern wording under Robert Frost ↗, while Goodreads credits David Frost ↗ — neither with a primary source.

The honest answer: not Robert Frost. The saying most likely belongs to the broadcaster David Frost, but even that rests on secondhand newspaper reports beginning 2 October 1985 — as Quote Investigator sets out, calling him the most likely originator while noting the earliest citations are indirect ↗. No speech, book or interview of Frost’s has been produced as the source.

Context

Why this one sticks to the wrong Frost

The sentence sounds like something a poet might say — unhurried, a little contrarian about ambition — and that is half of why it clings to Robert Frost. The other half is arithmetic: Robert Frost is one of the most quoted names on the internet, and David Frost is not. When a line is loose in circulation and two men share a surname, it flows toward the bigger name, never away from it. Quote Investigator ↗ puts the drift down to exactly that: confusion with another person whose last name was Frost.

The paper trail does not lead anywhere poetic. It leads to a newspaper puzzle. On 2 October 1985 the Courier-Post of Camden, New Jersey ran a quiz inviting readers to match famous statements to the people who made them; the answer key gave this one to the television host David Frost, in a longer and blunter form than the one that circulates today. Wikiquote, meanwhile, is no help in either direction — Robert Frost’s page ↗ has no Misattributed section and never carries the line, and David Frost’s ↗ does not contain it either.

“…confusion with another person whose last name was Frost.” — Quote Investigator

The wording changed on its way to you

The version you have almost certainly seen is not the earliest one. In the 1985 Courier-Post answer key the sentence reads “just do what you love doing and it will come naturally,” introduced by a line that no motivational poster ever reprints: “I think success is a crappy, trendy word.”

The familiar “love and believe in” phrasing shows up later. A 1991 profile in The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey has a student quoting David Frost with “what you love and believe in it”; the 1997 collection Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes prints it without that stray “it,” and that is the wording in circulation now. Quote Investigator recommends using the 1985 form ↗, because the later ones are further from the earliest record.

So the popular sentence is doubly displaced: the wrong Frost, and a wording that arrived a dozen years after the earliest citation rather than from the speaker’s mouth.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Success Purpose Work

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: tracing this quotequoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation. Concludes David Frost is the most likely originator and the Robert Frost credit is probably spurious, with dated citations from 1985, 1991, 1997 and 2009.
Quote Investigator — David Frost tagquoteinvestigator.com

QI’s index of quotations investigated in connection with David Frost.
Wikiquote: Robert Frosten.wikiquote.org

Frost’s sourced quotations, arranged by decade. Useful as a negative check: the page has no Misattributed or Disputed section and does not contain this line.
Wikiquote: David Frosten.wikiquote.org

The broadcaster’s sourced quotations — a short list that does not include this saying, which is why the credit to him rests on newspaper research rather than Wikiquote.
Open Library: Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes (1997)openlibrary.org

Catalogue record for the 1997 collection whose entry matches the wording in circulation: Reader’s Digest Association, Pleasantville, NY, ISBN 0895779250, 216 pages.
Wikipedia: David Frosten.wikipedia.org

Biography of Sir David Paradine Frost, 7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013, English television host, journalist, comedian and writer.
Wikipedia: Robert Frosten.wikipedia.org

Biography of the American poet, 26 March 1874 – 29 January 1963 — the man this quotation is not by.

The other Frost

About David Frost

David Frost

1939–2013 · English television host, journalist & writer

Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was an English television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He is the ‘other Frost’ — a broadcaster rather than a poet — and his quotation footprint is a small fraction of Robert Frost’s, which is precisely the asymmetry that lets a line drift from him to the poet rather than the other way round. Even his own Wikiquote page carries only a handful of sourced lines and does not include this saying, so the credit to him rests on Quote Investigator’s newspaper trail rather than on anything Frost is documented as having published.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented attribution

Jerry Holderman, “Out of the Mouths of Celebrities: Name the Famous Folks Who’ve Made Some Infamous Statements,” Courier-Post (Camden, NJ), October 2, 1985, 11D, col. 3 — the earliest documented attribution, credited there to David Frost — as transcribed in Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: Don’t Aim for Success If You Want It. Just Do What You Love Doing, and It Will Come Naturally,” July 29, 2018. The wording in popular circulation follows Reader’s Digest Quotable Quotes: Wit and Wisdom for All Occasions (Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Association, 1997), 172.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Don't aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally’?” Last verified 9 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/dont-aim-for-success-if-you-want-it-just-do-what-you-love/

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