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Who really said it

The best revenge is massive success

Not verified as Frank Sinatra — an unsourced modern maxim Frank Sinatra 1915–1998 · American singer & actor
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

This line is credited to Sinatra on thousands of quote pages, but no interview, recording, memoir, or biography is ever cited, and it does not appear in Wikiquote’s Sinatra entry at all. The same words are separately attributed to motivational speaker Les Brown — the signature of a free-floating success maxim rather than a documented quotation. Its ancestral idea is the 1640 proverb “Living well is the best revenge.”

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“The best revenge is massive success” Attributed to Frank Sinatra, but unsourced — no interview, recording, or book documents it, and it is also credited to Les Brown. Its ancestor is the 1640 proverb "Living well is the best revenge" (George Herbert).

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 world of Frank Sinatra — American singer & actor, the archetypal comeback star. Theme: "The best revenge is massive success". 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 "The best revenge is massive success". 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 source

Credited to
Frank Sinatra (unsourced); also Les Brown
Documented source
None located — no interview, recording, or book
Ancestral proverb
“Living well is the best revenge”
Proverb origin
George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

The best revenge is massive success.

Reproduced as it circulates; no primary source attaches it to Sinatra.

Quote Investigator: “Living Well Is the Best Revenge”

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator traces the older saying “Living well is the best revenge” to George Herbert’s Outlandish Proverbs (1640), but does not document any Sinatra “massive success” variant.
  • Wikiquote’s Sinatra page does not list this line at all — not in the sourced section, not even among misattributions.
  • Sean Croxton’s Quote of the Day presents the identical wording as something “Les Brown says,” showing the line floats between famous names.
  • Quote-aggregator pages such as Quoteikon print it as a Sinatra quote while supplying no citation, date, or occasion.

Because the exact wording cannot be tied to any dated, identifiable first publication — it circulates anonymously and is credited to several people — no copyright status can be responsibly asserted. The ancestral proverb “Living well is the best revenge” (George Herbert, 1640) is public domain, but that is a different sentence.

Fact-check

How a slogan got pinned on Sinatra

This is a textbook feel-good attribution: a punchy success maxim with no traceable source, attached to a famous name whose life story makes it feel authentic.

Frank Sinatra no source

Repeated on countless quote sites and social posts, yet not one cites an interview, lyric, book, or documented occasion, and it is absent from Wikiquote’s Sinatra entry. Aggregators like Goodreads host it with the standard disclaimer that community quotes are unverified.

Les Brown also credited

Motivational speaker Les Brown delivers the identical line, presented as his own on Sean Croxton’s Quote of the Day — a hallmark of a phrase that belongs to the self-help circuit rather than to one named author.

The genuine, documented ancestor is a 17th-century proverb — “Living well is the best revenge,” traced by Quote Investigator to George Herbert’s Outlandish Proverbs (1640). The “massive success” rewrite is a modern motivational reworking with no verified author.

Context

Why it sticks to Sinatra

Sinatra was the century’s great comeback act — written off, then triumphant, again and again. A line about answering critics with success maps so neatly onto that arc that people assume he must have said it. That fit is precisely what lets an unsourced slogan travel under his name.

The phrase “massive success” itself is a tell: it is the vocabulary of late-20th-century motivational speaking, not of Sinatra’s own recorded remarks. The sentiment is old; this particular packaging is modern.

A quote that fits a life is not the same as a quote from that life.

Explore

Filed under

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

Success

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: Living Well Is the Best Revengequoteinvestigator.com

Traces the ancestral proverb to George Herbert’s Outlandish Proverbs (1640); does not document a Sinatra variant.
Wikiquote: Frank Sinatraen.wikiquote.org

The community-sourced Sinatra quotation page — the line does not appear in it.
Quote of the Day: Les Brownseancroxton.com

Presents the identical wording as a Les Brown line, showing the attribution is not exclusive to Sinatra.
Quoteikon: The Best Revenge Is Massive Successquoteikon.com

Typical aggregator page crediting Sinatra with no citation or occasion.
Goodreads quote pagegoodreads.com

Hosts the line under Sinatra’s name with the standard unverified-community-quote caveat.

The author

About Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

1915–1998 · American singer & actor, the archetypal comeback star

Frank Sinatra was one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and an Academy Award–winning actor whose career arced through spectacular slumps and even more spectacular comebacks. That biography — counted out, then roaring back bigger — is exactly why a triumph-over-critics line sticks to his name so readily. But a quote fitting a person’s story is not the same as evidence they said it.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Best available

No primary source located. Earliest documented ancestor: George Herbert, “Living well is the best revenge,” in Outlandish Proverbs (London, 1640), as traced by Quote Investigator (2 Sept. 2018). The “massive success” wording circulates unsourced under Frank Sinatra’s name and, separately, Les Brown’s.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The best revenge is massive success’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-best-revenge-is-massive-success

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