P.T. Barnum — "The public loves a good fraud, if it's a good fraud."
The public loves a good fraud, if it's a good fraud.
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More from P.T. Barnum
"The greatest pleasure I have is in confounding the wise and puzzling the learned."
"I have often been asked what was the secret of my success, and I have invariably replied, 'I always had the sense to know I knew nothing.'"
"I love a good hoax, especially when it turns out to be true."
"I have exhibited mermaids, but I never said they were real."
"The American people like to be humbugged."
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, highlighting his understanding of public's perverse enjoyment of being 'humbugged'
Date: c. 1860s-1880s
GeneralVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
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