P. T. Barnum

Entertainer

52 Quotes

Men, women, and children who cannot live on gravity alone need something to satisfy their gayer, lighter moods and hours, and he who ministers to this want is, in my opinion, in a business established by the Creator of our nature. If he worthily fulfills his mission and amuses without corrupting, he need never feel that he has lived in vain.

As a general thing, I have not 'duped the world' nor attempted to do so... I have generally given people the worth of their money twice told.

Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.

Without promotion, something terrible happens... nothing!

In the United States, where we have more land than people, it is not at all difficult for persons in good health to make money.

Every crowd has a silver lining.

The show business has all phases and grades of dignity, from the exhibition of a monkey to the exposition of that highest art in music or the drama which secures for the gifted artists a world-wide fame princes well might envy.

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.

Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests.

Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.

Witchcraft is one of the most baseless, absurd, disgusting and silly of all the humbugs.

Medicine is the means by which we poor feeble creatures try to keep from dying or aching.

Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.

Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.

He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.

Money is in some respects life's fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.

There is no such thing in the world as luck. There never was a man who could go out in the morning and find a purse full of gold in the street to-day, and another to-morrow, and so on, day after day: He may do so once in his life; but so far as mere luck is concerned, he is as liable to lose it as to find it.

Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it.

A lovely nook of forest scenery, or a grand rock, like a beautiful woman, depends for much of its attractiveness upon the attendance sense of freedom from whatever is low; upon a sense of purity and of romance.

Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.

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