evidence: - Often presented as a line from the movie Fight Club. Although consistent with the film's anti-consumerist philosophy, neither the quote nor any variation of it is ever uttered in the movie or the original novel.[dubious? ] The original quote, "Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like", is attributed to Walter Slezak was in the 4th June 1928 Detroit Free Press (thirty years before Slezak), where the American humorist and journalist Robert Quillen, though elements of the quote appeared earlier. In that column, he defined "Americanism" as "using money you haven’t earned to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like." - The novel does contain the line "A lot of young people try to impress the world and buy too many things", and at one point in the film the character played by Brad Pitt says "Working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." - In the Internet age the quote has been adapted as "We post content that isn't ours for likes that aren't real to impress people we don't know."