P.T. Barnum — "Politeness and good humor are as much in demand as good merchandise."
Politeness and good humor are as much in demand as good merchandise.
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More from P.T. Barnum
"Clergymen sometimes take offense when I place my Museum next door to their churches; but really, a lecture on natural history from my platform is quite as instructive as a sermon from their pulpits."
"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."
"If I shoot at the sun, I may hit a star."
"The best kind of advertising is word of mouth, but you have to get people talking."
"Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung."
About P.T. Barnum (1810-1891)
American showman and Barnum & Bailey Circus co-founder, whose autobiography popularized Gilded Age commercial spectacle. Closely associated with James Anthony Bailey (his circus business partner). For an intellectual contrast, see Mark Twain, American author and Gilded Age satirist — Twain's The Gilded Age (1873, with Charles Dudley Warner) named the entire era of corrupt commercial spectacle Barnum embodied — Twain's later writing repeatedly attacked Barnum-style hucksterism as the era's moral disease.