P. T. Barnum
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.Collection: Truth
Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests.Collection: Government
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.Collection: Alone
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.Collection: Morning
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.Collection: Health
No man has a right to expect to succeed in life unless he understands his business, and nobody can understand his business thoroughly unless he learns it by personal application and experience.Collection: Business
Money is in some respects life's fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.Collection: Money
True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go. Wear the old clothes a little longer if necessary; dispense with the new pair of gloves; mend the old dress: live on plainer food if need be; so that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen accident occurs, there will be a margin in favor of the income.Collection: Food
Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it.Collection: Truth
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.Collection: Money
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.Collection: Health
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.Collection: Work
To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.Collection: Music
Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.
Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.
Without promotion, something terrible happens... nothing!
Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.
Every crowd has a silver lining.
There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt.
Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich today and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back upon. This provision might save many persons from misery, who by some unexpected turn of fortune have lost all their means.
Witchcraft is one of the most baseless, absurd, disgusting and silly of all the humbugs.
Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed. I am glad to believe that the majority of persons do find their right vocation.
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.
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.
Medicine is the means by which we poor feeble creatures try to keep from dying or aching.
He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.
No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.Collection: Ignorance
Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.Collection: People
There is a fool born every minuteCollection: Fool
The common man, no matter how sharp and tough, actually enjoys having the wool pulled over his eyes, and makes it easier for the puller.Collection: Eye
You can fool most of the people most of the time.Collection: People
The noblest art is that of making others happyCollection: Art
The bigger the humbug, the better people will like it.Collection: People
There's no such thing as bad publicity.Collection: Advertising Business
Without publicity a terrible thing happens: nothing.Collection: Judging
But however mysterious is nature , however ignorant the doctor, however imperfect the present state of physical science , the patronage and the success of quacks and quackeries are infinitely more wonderful than those of honest and laborious men of science and their careful experiments.Collection: Men
There's one born every minute.Collection: Born
We cannot all see alike, but we can all do good.Collection: Good Service
You know I had rather be laughed at than not to be noticed at all.Collection: Knows
Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.Collection: Crowds
I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.Collection: Names
There is no class of people in the world, who have such good memories as creditors.Collection: Memories
Every man's occupation should be beneficial to his fellow-man as well as profitable to himself. All else is vanity and folly.Collection: Men
Money is good for nothing unless you know the value of it by experience.Collection: Money
To forgive heals the wound, to forget heals the scar.Collection: Forgiving
True economy consists in always making the income exceed the outgo.Collection: Income
Small does of advertising result in nothing, obviously. It's like giving a sick person half the medicine he needs. It just causes more suffering. Give the whole dose, and the cure will be certain and decisive.Collection: Medicine
A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained.Collection: Rainy Day
The orthodox faith painted God as a revengeful being, and yet people talk about loving such a being.Collection: People
Money-getters are the benefactors of our race. To them ... are we indebted for our institutions of learning, and of art, our academies, colleges and churches.Collection: Art