Now I’m fairly certain I’ve been saying that line for at least ten years, don’t know where I heard it, but now someone pointed out I was referencing The Dark Knight and I honestly couldn’t believe it when I googled the phrase and found nothing but Dark Knight sites.
That expression must be older than 2008. Right?
It’s highly likely that the quote originated from The Dark Knight movie. Apparently, Batman (and other super-heroes) was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher. A lot of aspects of Batman are inspired by Nietzsche’s beliefs which would explain why the movies seem very philosophical at times.
Along with the fact that there seem to be no references to this quote prior to the movie release (or any variation of it), I conclude that it did in fact originate (at least main stream) from the movie.
Source: Nietzsche and the Superhero
Source: A philosophical basis for the Batman saga
Search: Batman + philosophy (tried to add as a link but wouldn’t let me)
Search: Batman + Nietzsche (tried to add as a link but wouldn’t let me)
There is also more proof of this in the book, Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul. While it doesn’t specify the quote, it does discuss the connection between Batman and Nietzsche.