Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, promoter and later, a politician. He is regarded for extensively promoting shows, musical concerts and circuses. He was an entrepreneur who also made circus popular with his excessive marketing and embedded in them the element of outrageous stunts.
A movie ‘The Greatest Showman’ was released in 2017 based on Barnum’s career as a showman. In this article, we will share with you 60 best quotes by P.T Barnum about marketing, hosting and entrepreneurship that you can grasp inspiration from.
1. “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, which can be done just as well now.”– P.T. Barnum
2. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
3. “Without promotion, something terrible happens- nothing!”– P.T. Barnum
4. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
5. “Work hard, think hard, be honest, and spend little – this will ‘make common gold.’”– P.T. Barnum
6. “Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.”– P.T. Barnum
7. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
8. “To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.”– P.T. Barnum
9. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
10. “Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.”– P.T. Barnum
11. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
12. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
13. “You can fool most of the people most of the time.”– P.T. Barnum
14. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
15. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
16. “Every crowd has a silver lining.”– P.T. Barnum
17. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
18. “Medicine is the means by which we poor feeble creatures try to keep from dying or aching.”– P.T. Barnum
19. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
20. “Money is in some respects life’s fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.”– P.T. Barnum
21. “Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests.”– P.T. Barnum
22. “Witchcraft is one of the most baseless, absurd, disgusting and silly of all the humbugs.”– P.T. Barnum
23. “He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.”– P.T. Barnum
24. “If I shoot at the sun, I may hit a star.”– P.T. Barnum
25. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
26. “Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it.”– P.T. Barnum
27. “I am prouder of my title ‘The Children’s Friend’ than if I were to be called ‘The King of the World’.”– P.T. Barnum
28. “No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.”– P.T. Barnum
29. “Gods and politics are the tools with which the godless and unprincipled manipulate the gullible.”– P.T. Barnum
30. “There is a fool born every minute.”– P.T. Barnum
31. “Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.”– P.T. Barnum
32. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
33. “The noblest art is that of making others happy.”– P.T. Barnum
34. “Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.”– P.T. Barnum
35. “I risked much, but I made much.”– P.T. Barnum
36. “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”– P.T. Barnum
37.”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.”– P.T. Barnum
38. “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.”– P.T. Barnum
39. “To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.”– P.T. Barnum
40. “We cannot all see alike, but we can all do good.”– P.T. Barnum
41. “Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until you conclude to abandon it. A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched.”– P.T. Barnum
42. “The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves.”– P.T. Barnum
43. “Whatever you do, do it ardently.”– P.T. Barnum
44. “If you hesitate, some bolder hand will stretch out before you and get the prize.”– P.T. Barnum
45. “Every man’s occupation should be beneficial to his fellow-man as well as profitable to himself. All else is vanity and folly.”– P.T. Barnum
46. “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”– P.T. Barnum
47. “Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get ill, yet we find many a young man, hardly out of his ‘teens,’ running in debt. He meets a chum and says, Look at this: I have got trusted for a new suit of clothes. He seems to look upon the clothes as so much given to him; well, it frequently is so, but if he succeeds in paying and then gets trusted again, he is adopting a habit which will keep him in poverty through life. Debt robs a man of his self-respect and makes him almost despise himself.”– P.T. Barnum
48. “Money is, in some respects, like fire. It is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.”– P.T. Barnum
49. “Remember the proverb of Solomon: He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”– P.T. Barnum
50. “The bigger the humbug, the better people will like it.”– P.T. Barnum
51. “I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”– P.T. Barnum
52. “The possession of a perfect knowledge of your business is an absolute necessity in order to ensure success.”– P.T. Barnum
53. “Comfort is the enemy of progress.”– P.T. Barnum
54. “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
55. “Advertising is to a genuine article what manure is to land – it largely increases the product.”– P.T. Barnum
56. “Be cautious and bold.”– P.T. Barnum
57. “Let your motto then always be ‘Excelsior’, for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.”– P.T. Barnum
58. “We agreed that many a human life is sacrificed in sudden anger because one or both the parties carry deadly weapons.”– P.T. Barnum
59. “Writing lives forever, while you may not.”– P.T. Barnum
60. “Exposing an illusion is not the same as revealing a truth.”– P.T. Barnum
