P.T. Barnum

Advertising is to a genuine article what manure is to land, - it largely increases the product.

The public appears disposed to be amused even when they are conscious of being deceived.

No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.

I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.

Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.

And in what business is there not humbug?

The greatest humbug of all is the man who believes—or pretends to believe—that everything and everybody are humbugs.

Science is another important field of human effort... Not at all, my ardent and inquiring friends, there is a scientific humbug just as large as any other.

The plan of 'counting the chickens before they are hatched' is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by age.

Nobody ever lost a dollar by underestimating the taste of the American public.

More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much.

I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.

You know I had rather be laughed at than not to be noticed at all.

Small does of advertising result in nothing, obviously. It's like giving a sick person half the medicine he needs. It just causes more suffering. Give the whole dose, and the cure will be certain and decisive.

Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, if necessary, 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.

Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.

Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed.

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.

We cannot all see alike, but we can all do good.

Never attempt to catch a whale with a minnow.