18 quotes
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.
Art of Money Getting (1880)
Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.
Art of Money Getting (1880)
Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.
Art of Money Getting (1880)
In fact, as a general thing, money-getters are the benefactors of our race.
Art of Money Getting (1880)
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.
Art of Money Getting (1880)
I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.
P. T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman (1995)
Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.
The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves.
Art of Money Getting (1880)
Advertise your business. Do not hide your light under a bushel.
Pride, when permitted full sway, is the great undying cankerworm which gnaws the very vitals of a man's worldly possessions, let them be small or great, hundreds or millions.
Many a man acquires a fortune by doing his business thoroughly, while his neighbour remains poor for life, because he only half does it. Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business.
The use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage is as much an infatuation as is the smoking of opium by the Chinese, and the former is quite as destructive to the success of the business man as the latter.
However successful a man may be in his own business, if he turns from that and engages ill a business which he don't understand, he is like Samson when shorn of his locks his strength has departed, and he becomes like other men.
A little reflection will show that humbug is an astonishingly wide-spread phenomenon — in fact almost universal. And this is true, although we exclude crimes and arrant swindles from the definition of it, according to the somewhat careful explanation which is given in the beginning of the chapter succeeding this one.
The Humbugs of the World (1865)
But however mysterious is nature, however ignorant the doctor, however imperfect the present state of physical science, the patronage and the success of quacks and quackeries are infinitely more wonderful than those of honest and laborious men of science and their careful experiments.
The Humbugs of the World (1865)
Every crowd has a silver lining.
Misattributed
Always leave them wanting more.
Disputed
There's a sucker born every minute.
Misattributed