John, the Vidal formulation I have seen is something like, “It is not enough to succeed; others must fail.” He has used it many times, as all but the proudest writers (I think of the great Keith Mano) do with their zingers. I’m sorry I can’t think of an instance; there must be several in that big fat book of his greatest hits with the American flag on the cover that came out in the late nineties.