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P.T. Barnum Quotes

Total quotes: 35
“The show must go on.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Famous Sayings, Keep Going
“Comfort, the enemy of progress.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Progress, Comfort
“The noblest art is that of making others happy.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Bringing Happiness, Art
“When was the last time you smiled? Or had a good laugh? A real laugh.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Laughter, Happiness
“James Gordon Bennett: Tell me, Mr. Barnum, does it bother you that everything you're selling is fake?

P.T. Barnum: Do these smiles seem fake? It doesn't matter where they come from. The joy is real.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Conman, Authenticity
“You are beautiful. You are unique.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: compliments, beauty
“Trust me, they don't know it yet, but they're going to love you.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Popularity, Becoming Famous
“P.T. Barnum: I am putting together a show, and I need a star.

Tom Thumb: You want people to laugh at me.

P.T. Barnum: Well they're laughing anyway, kid, so you might as well get paid.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: bullying, Paid Talent
“Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: crowds, Attention
“My father was treated like dirt. I was treated like dirt. My children won't be.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Parenting, Creating A Better Future
“You don't need everyone to love you. Just a few good people!”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Quality Over Quantity, Friendships
“Hyperbole isn't the worst crime. Men suffer more from imagining too little than too much.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Hyperbole, Dreaming Big
“No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman
Tagged: Fitting In, Making A Difference
“OLD GRIZZLY ADAMS. [37-*] James C. Adams, or 'Grizzly Adams,' as he was generally termed, from the fact of his having captured so many grizzly bears, and encountered such fearful perils by his unexampled daring, was an extraordinary character. For many years a hunter and trapper in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains, he acquired a recklessness which, added to his natural invincible courage, rendered him truly one of the most striking men of the age. He was emphatically what the English call a man of 'pluck.' In 1860, he arrived in New York with his famous collection of California animals, captured by himself, consisting of twenty or thirty immense grizzly bears, at the head of which stood 'Old Sampson”—now in the American Museum—wolves, half a dozen other species of bear, California lions, tigers, buffalo, elk, etc., and Old Neptune, the great sea-lion, from the Pacific.”
— P.T. Barnum, Barnum's Humbugs of the World
Tagged: Obituaries, Grizzly Adams, California, New York, wolves, Bears, Tigers, Buffalo, Sea Lions, Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Grizzly Bears, Hunter, Trapper
“In my temperance speeches, I have frequently been interrupted, and sometimes interrogated by opponents. I always take things coolly, let them have their say, and endeavor to give them a 'Roland for an Oliver.'”
— P.T. Barnum, The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself
Tagged: Temperance, Roland, Oliver, Debating, Hecklers
“Several years since, I purchased a living white whale, captured near Labrador, and succeeded in placing it, 'in good condition,' in a large tank, fifty feet long, and supplied with salt water, in the basement of the American Museum. I was obliged to light the basement with gas, and that frightened the sea-monster to such an extent that he kept at the bottom of the tank, except when he was compelled to stick his nose above the surface in order to breathe or 'blow,' and then down he would go again as quick as possible. Visitors would sometimes stand for half an hour, watching in vain to get a look at the whale; for, although he could remain under water only about two minutes at a time, he would happen to appear in some unlooked for quarter of the huge tank, and before they could all get a chance to see him, he would be out of sight again. Some impatient and incredulous persons after waiting ten minutes, which seemed to them an hour, would sometimes exclaim: 'Oh, humbug! I don’t believe there is a whale here at all!' This incredulity often put me out of patience, and I would say: 'Ladies and gentlemen, there is a living whale in the tank. He is frightened by the gaslight and by visitors; but he is obliged to come to the surface every two minutes, and if you will watch sharply, you will see him. I am sorry we can’t make him dance a hornpipe and do all sorts of wonderful things at the word of command; but if you will exercise your patience a few minutes longer, I assure you the whale will be seen at considerably less trouble than it would be to go to Labrador expressly for that purpose.' This would usually put my patrons in good humor; but I was myself often vexed at the persistent stubbornness of the whale in not calmly floating on the surface for the gratification of my visitors. One day, a sharp Yankee lady and her daughter, from Connecticut, called at the Museum. I knew them well; and in answer to their inquiry for the locality of the whale, I directed them to the basement. Half an hour afterward, they called at my office, and the acute mother, in a half-confidential, serio-comic whisper, said: 'Mr. B., it’s astonishing to what a number of purposes the ingenuity of us Yankees has applied india-rubber.”
— P.T. Barnum, Barnum's Humbugs of the World
Tagged: Whales, Zoos, Animals in Captivity, Circus Attractions, Sideshow, Labrador, White Whale, Yankees
“We agreed that many a human life is sacrificed in sudden anger, because one or both the parties carry deadly weapons.”
— P.T. Barnum, The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself
Tagged: Murder, Anger, Deadly Weapons, Gun Control
“Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests. Now it was a diplomatist—that is, a practical manager of one kind of government matters—who invented that wonderful phrase—a whole world full of humbug in half-a-dozen words—that 'Language was given to us to conceal our thoughts. 'It was another diplomatist, who said 'An ambassador is a gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. 'But need I explain to my own beloved countrymen that there is humbug in politics? Does anybody go into a political campaign without it? are no exaggerations of our candidate’s merits to be allowed? no depreciations of the other candidate? Shall we no longer prove that the success of the party opposed to us will overwhelm the land in ruin? Let me see. Leaving out the two elections of General Washington, eighteen times that very fact has been proved by the party that was beaten, and immediately we have not been ruined, notwithstanding that the dreadful fatal fellows on the other side got their hands on the offices and their fingers into the treasury.”
— P.T. Barnum, Barnum's Humbugs of the World
Tagged: Politics, Government, George Washington, Language, Ambassadors, Diplomats
“The greatest humbug of all is the man who believes—or pretends to believe—that everything and everybody are humbugs.”
— P.T. Barnum, Barnum's Humbugs of the World
Tagged: Humbugs, Quacks, Con Men
“Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it. In such an employment as that, one might reasonably hope to find all things done in honesty and sincerity. Not at all, my ardent and inquiring friends, there is a scientific humbug just as large as any other. We have all heard of the Moon Hoax. Do none of you remember the Hydrarchos Sillimannii, that awful Alabama snake? It was only a little while ago that a grave account appeared in a newspaper of a whole new business of compressing ice. Perpetual motion has been the dream of scientific visionaries, and a pretended but cheating realization of it has been exhibited by scamp after scamp. I understand that one is at this moment being invented over in Jersey City. I have purchased more than one 'perpetual motion' myself. Many persons will remember Mr. Paine—'The Great Shot-at'as he was called, from his story that people were constantly trying to kill him—and his water-gas. There have been other water gases too, which were each going to show us how to set the North River on fire, but something or other has always broken down just at the wrong moment. Nobody seems to reflect, when these water gases come up, that if water could really be made to burn, the right conditions would surely have happened at some one of the thousands of city fires, and that the very stuff with which our stout firemen were extinguishing the flames, would have itself caught and exterminated the whole brave wet crowd!”
— P.T. Barnum, Barnum's Humbugs of the World
Tagged: Humbug, Con Men, Science, Quackery, Perpetual Motion
“You reflect that he is worth twenty thousand dollars, and you incur no risk by endorsing his note; you like to accommodate him, and you lend your name without taking the precaution of getting security. Shortly after, he shows you the note with your endorsement canceled, and tells you, probably truly, 'that he made the profit that he expected by the operation,' you reflect that you have done a good action, and the thought makes you feel happy. By and by, the same thing occurs again and you do it again; you have already fixed the impression in your mind that it is perfectly safe to indorse his notes without security.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: finances, risks, Cheating, Swindlers
“Money is, in some respects, like fire. It is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Money, Fire, Servant, Master
“Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Independence, Discipline
“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.”
— P.T. Barnum, Barnum's Humbugs of the World
Tagged: Humbugs, Old Masters, Great American Novel, Chicory, Coffee, Business, Cheating
“Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Fortune, Brave, Self-Help
“The great ambition should be to excel all others engaged in the same occupation.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Ambition, Competition
“The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most congenial to his tastes.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: plan, Career, Vocation
“If all the world were blind except myself I should not care for fine clothes or furniture.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Blind, appearances, Fine Clothes, furniture
“Advertising is to a genuine article what manure is to land—it largely increases the product.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Advertising, Genuine Article, Manure, Analogies
“The possession of a perfect knowledge of your business is an absolute necessity in order to insure success.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Knowldege, Business, Success
“Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt....Debt robs a man of his self-respect, and makes him almost despise himself.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Young Men, Debt
“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.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Success, Health, Happiness, Fortune
“Be cautious and bold.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: cautious, bold, Contradiction
“Let your motto then always be 'Excelsior', for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: Excelsior, Fail, Failure, Motto
“WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT. Work at it, if necessary, 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. The old proverb is full of truth and meaning, 'Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.'”
— P.T. Barnum, P. T. Barnum- The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money
Tagged: perseverance, Effort, No Stone Unturned, Ambition, Success, Business, Fortune
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