Top 80 P.T. Barnum Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The noblest art is that of making others happy.”

— P.T. Barnum

Featured in: Happiness Quotes, Positivity Quotes, Sweet Quotes, Cheer Quotes, Positive Short Quotes

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

— P.T. Barnum

3. “Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.”

— P.T. Barnum

4. “Comfort is the enemy of progress.”

— P.T. Barnum

5. “No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”

— P.T. Barnum

6. “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

8. “I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”

— P.T. Barnum

9. “If I shoot at the sun, I may hit a star.”

— P.T. Barnum

10. “Your success depends on what you do yourself, with your own means.”

— P.T. Barnum

11. “To forgive heals the wound, to forget heals the scar.”

— P.T. Barnum

12. “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

— P.T. Barnum

13. “A salary was not sufficient for me.”

— P.T. Barnum

14. “Energy and patience in business are two indispensable elements of success.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

16. “Without publicity a terrible thing happens: nothing.”

— P.T. Barnum

17. “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.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

19. “There is a fool born every minute.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

21. “To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.”

— P.T. Barnum

22. “Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.”

— P.T. Barnum

23. “A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained.”

— P.T. Barnum

24. “Whatever you do, do it ardently.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

27. “Money is in some respects life’s fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.”

— P.T. Barnum

28. “Never attempt to catch a whale with a minnow.”

— P.T. Barnum

29. “Money is the excellent slave and a horrible master.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

31. “Every man’s occupation should be beneficial to his fellow-man as well as profitable to himself. All else is vanity and folly.”

— P.T. Barnum

32. “When a man is in the right path, he must persevere.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

34. “The bigger the humbug, the better people will like it.”

— P.T. Barnum

35. “Advertising is like learning – a little is a dangerous thing. If a man has not the pluck to keep on advertising, all the money he has already spent is lost.”

— P.T. Barnum

36. “The foundation of success in life is good health:.”

— P.T. Barnum

37. “Every crowd has a silver lining.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

39. “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.”

— P.T. Barnum

40. “There is no greater picture than that of 10,000 smiling children. No brighter music than their clear-ringing laughter. That I, with my small amusements, have created such precious art is my life’s proudest achievement.”

— P.T. Barnum

41. “You must exercise your caution in laying your plans, but be bold in carrying them out.”

— P.T. Barnum

42. “Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it.”

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

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

— P.T. Barnum

45. “Be cautious and bold.”

— P.T. Barnum

46. “With the young man starting in business, let him understand the value of money by earning it.”

— P.T. Barnum

47. “You can fool most of the people most of the time.”

— P.T. Barnum

48. “A lovely nook of forest scenery, or a grand rock, like a beautiful woman, depends for much of its attractiveness upon the attendance sense of freedom from whatever is low; upon a sense of purity and of romance.”

— P.T. Barnum

Featured in: Romance Quotes

49. “I am indebted to the press of the United States for almost every dollar which I possess...”

— P.T. Barnum

50. “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.”

— P.T. Barnum