P. T. Barnum Quotes

“A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained. It requires some training, perhaps, to accomplish this economy, but when once used to it, you will find there is more satisfaction in rational saving than in irrational spending.”

“Advertising is like learning – a little is a dangerous thing.”

“Be cautious and bold.”

“Constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched. When a man's undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.”

“Go in confidence, study the rules, and above all things, study human nature for the proper study of mankind is man and you will find that while expanding the intellect and the muscles your enlarged experience will enable you to every day accumulate more and more principle which will increase itself by interest and otherwise until you arrive at a state of independence. ”

“He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.”

“If you hesitate, some bolder hand will stretch out before you and get the prize.”

“In fact, as a general thing, money-getters are the benefactors of our race.”

“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.”

“Let your motto then always be 'Excelsior', for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.”

“Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every project looks to them like certain successes, and therefore they keep changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always ‘under the harrow’.”

“Money is good for nothing unless you know the value of it by experience.”

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

“Money-getters are the benefactors of our race. To them are we indebted for our institutions of learning, and of art, our academies, colleges and churches.”

“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.”

“No profession, trade, or calling, is overcrowded in the upper story.”

“Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.”

“The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves.”

“The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.”

“The foundation of success in life is good health: that is the substratum fortune; it is also the basis of happiness. A person cannot accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick.”

“The great ambition should be to excel all others engaged in the same occupation.”

“The possession of a perfect knowledge of your business is an absolute necessity in order to insure success.”

“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.”

“There is no class of people in the world, who have such good memories as creditors.”

“There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt.”