“It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on”

“It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on” (that is, it’s better to be angry than to simply take the abuse of others) is a saying that has been printed on many gift items, such as T-shirts and posters. The saying has been cited in print since at least 1969.
 
   
23 May 1969, Daily Northwestern (Evanston, IL), “Strike set Tuesday by ASG execs” by Larry Kaagan, pg. 1, col. 1:
ASG (Associated Student Government—ed.) vice-president Eva Jefferson proposed the idea, and suggested the slogan, “It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.”
 
Google Books
September-October 1982, Mother Jones magazine, pg. 55, col. 1 ad:
ID RATHER BE PISSED OFF THAN PISSED ON.
(Advertisement for T-shirt slogans—ed.)
 
Google Books
Spellbound:
The Ascension
By Mathew Curry
Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc.
2002
Pg. 322:
“As I dear friend of mine is in the habit of saying, ‘Better pissed off than pissed on, unless you’re into such a fetish,’” I said with a nervous chuckle.
 
Google Books
Proverbs:
A Handbook
By Wolfgang Mieder
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
2004
Pg. 16:
New proverbs are still created along this line, as for example “If you got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow,” “Opinions are like assholes — everybody’s got one,” and “It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.”
   
OCLC WorldCat record
How dare you say how dare me!
Author: Pat Cooper, comedian.; Rich Herschlag; Steve Garrin
Publisher: Garden City Park, NY : SquareOne Publishers, ©2011
Contents:
Better pissed off than pissed on
 
Google Books
The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs
By Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder and Fred R. Shapiro
New Haven, CT: Yale Univesity Press
2012
Pg. 198:
It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.
1974 John Wood, How Do You Feel?: A Guide to Your Emotions (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall) 37: “I have a friend who says, ‘It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.’ That’s kind of the way I feel about anger….” The proverb is often uttered in response to someone’s exclamation that he is “pissed off” (angry or acutely annoyed).