P. T. Barnum Quotes

Advertising is to a genuine article what manure is to land, - it largely increases the product.

"Give a boy twenty thousand dollars and put him in business, and the chances are that he will lose every dollar of it before he is a year older. Like buying a ticket in the lottery; and drawing a prize, it is "easy come, easy go." He does not know the value of it; nothing is worth anything, unless it costs effort. Without self-denial and economy; patience and perseverance, and commencing with capital which you have not earned, you are not sure to succeed in accumulating."

I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.

Comfort is the enemy of progress.

The great ambition should be to excel all others engaged in the same occupation.

The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves. Promiscuous almsgiving, without inquiring into the worthiness of the applicant, is bad in every sense. But to search out and quietly assist those who are struggling for themselves, is the kind that “scattereth and yet increaseth.

The foundation of success in life is good health:

Be cautious and bold.

it is the eyes of others and not our own eyes which ruin us. If all the world were blind except myself I should not care for fine clothes or furniture.

And in what business is there not humbug? “There’s cheating in all trades but ours,” is the prompt reply from the boot-maker with his brown paper soles, the grocer with his floury sugar and chicoried coffee, the butcher with his mysterious sausages and queer veal, the dry goods man with his “damaged goods wet at the great fire” and his “selling at a ruinous loss,” the stock-broker with his brazen assurance that your company is bankrupt and your stock not worth a cent (if he wants to buy it,) the horse jockey with his black arts and spavined brutes, the milkman with his tin aquaria, the land agent with his nice new maps and beautiful descriptions of distant scenery, the newspaper man with his “immense circulation,” the publisher with his “Great American Novel,” the city auctioneer with his “Pictures by the Old Masters” — all and every one protest each his own innocence, and warn you against the deceits of the rest. My inexperienced friend, take it for granted that they all tell the truth — about each other! and then transact your business to the best of your ability on your own judgment.

The Noblest of Arts is Making Others Happy

"Go on in confidence, study the rules, and above all things, study human nature; for
"the proper study of mankind is man," and you will find that while expanding the intellect
and the muscles, your enlarged experience will enable you every day to accumulate more
and more principal, which will increase itself by interest and otherwise, until you arrive
at a state of independence. You will find, as a general thing, that the poor boys get rich and the rich boys get poor."

Always leave them wanting more.

The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.

The foundation of success in life is good health: that is the substratum fortune; it is also the basis of happiness. A person cannot accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick.