I don’t get heart attacks, I give them.

The earliest located instance is presented as an already-familiar anecdote about a manufacturing executive (called “Mr. Brown”) berating a foreman over the phone. After a bystander warns that such anger could cause a heart attack, the executive replies that he doesn’t suffer heart attacks—he causes them in others.

The line is a boast meant to project dominance: the speaker frames their stress and aggression not as self-harmful, but as something that intimidates and harms subordinates instead.

“Mr. Brown, if you do that very often you are going to get a heart attack.” The irate manufacturer’s reply was, “I don’t get heart attacks, I give them.”

“I don’t get ulcers … I give them!”

“I don’t have nightmares … I give them.”