P.T. Barnum — "The public is not capable of distinguishing between a genuine article and a spur…"
The public is not capable of distinguishing between a genuine article and a spurious one.
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More from P.T. Barnum
"There's a sucker born every minute."
"The best kind of advertising is word of mouth, but you have to get people talking."
"I have exhibited mermaids, but I never said they were real."
"No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else."
"Without publicity a terrible thing happens: nothing."
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.
Details
Reported statement, a more direct expression of his views on public gullibility
Date: c. 1860s-1880s
GeneralVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
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