Like most people in Connecticut in those days, I was brought up to attend church regularly on Sunday, and long before I could read I was a prominent … - P. T. Barnum

The history of money-getting, which is commerce, is a history of civilization, and wherever trade has flourished most, there, too, have art and science produced the noblest fruits. In fact, as a general thing, money-getters are the benefactors of our race. To them, in a great measure, are we indebted for our institutions of learning and of art, our academies, colleges, and churches.

Go 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 to every day accumulate more and more principle which will increase itself by interest and otherwise until you arrive at a state of independence.

"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."