I googled it and came up with results from MAS*H, but that is not what I remember it from.
I think I may of heard Marge say it on the simpsons. I can’t remember the context though.
I first remember Frank Burns from MASH saying “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.”
Oh, that rings a bell.
I think it’s the title of a fictional song mentioned in a book. Maybe Terry Pratchett.
The booklet that came with my copy of the Small Faces collection Absolutely the Best (Immediate 302 061 124 2, strongly recommended) says in discussing the band’s first single, “Here Comes the Nice,” that its members used “nice” as a code for stoned and includes the phrase used in the title of this thread.
“But the animated display of Dolls of All Nations was definitely in trouble. The musical box underneath was still playing “Wouldn’t It Be Nice If Everyone Was Nice” but the rods that animated the figures had got twisted out of shape, so that the Klatchian boy was rhythmically hitting the Omnian girl over the head with his ceremonial spear, while the girl in Agatean national costume was kicking a small Llamedosian druid repeated in the ear. A chorus of small children was cheering them on indiscriminately.”
From *Hogfather *by Terry Pratchett.
Is that the one?
No, it’s definitely not that one. Thanks, though. We’ll get to the bottom of it!
I remember it as the Frank Burns quote as well. No clue if it was around before that.
“its nice to be important, but its more important to be nice.”
Yep, I thought Frank Burns as well.
This quote came from a Preacher who called himself King Narcisse aka Louis H. Narcisse. Mt. Zion Spiritual Temple in Oakland, CA. It was his beginning credo of every service. "It’s Nice to be Nice, isn’t it. April 1921 - February 1989, May God have mercy on his soul.
chefIL11 hasn’t posted in nine years, so your suggestion might not reach the intended audience.
Maybe so, but at least we have learned something new today.
I knew an old man back in the fifties when I wasn’t yet a teenager who used this phrase constantly… and that was before the advent of television in our neck of the woods (UK).
Well it’s not like it’s a complicated phrase likely to have been thought of only once in the history of the English language. 
Google ngram for instance gives us “It’s nice to be nice to a nice little girl like you”, a song from 1911. It's nice, to be nice, to a nice little girl like | Library of Congress
The director of the Foundation for the Junior Blind (Norm Kaplan) was known to repeat the mantra constantly to his charges, when my wife attended the Foundation and Camp Bloomfield (I believe as early as 1960). Of course, blind kids being kids, much hilarity was elicited with the use of alternative mottos, such as “It’s keen to be mean,” and “It’s cool to be cruel.”
“… one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would to be nice to everyone for a change.”
- Douglas Adams’ summary of Christianity.
What springs to mind for me is Under Milk Wood - ‘Me, Mrs Dai Bread One, capped and shawled and no old corset, nice to be comfy, nice to be nice, clogging on the cobbles to stir up a neighbour…’
That’s from 1954, but it sort of reads like it was a phrase already in common use.
Albert King - “It’s Nice To Be Nice”
How about a deodorant ad from decades ago? Actually, probably many origins.
I remember seeing his show on local television in Oakland, CA.
He had a beautiful deep voice and was very flamboyant as I recall. He was driven around in gold-colored Caddilacs, as I recall, and you can find examples of his singing on the Web. He always closed the television services with the “It’s nice to be nice” catchphrase