Top 18 P. T. Barnum Quotes

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

Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.

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.

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.

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.

There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt.

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

Every crowd has a silver lining.

Without promotion, something terrible happens… nothing!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.