Phineas Taylor Barnum
Bethel (Connecticut), 1810.
The greatest showman that America
has ever seen.
Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt.
There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get in, yet we find many a young man hardly out of his "teens" running in debt. He meets a chum and says, "Look at this; I have got trusted for a new suit of clothes." He seems to look upon the clothes as so much given to him. Well, it frequently is so, but, if he succeeds in paying and then gets trusted again, he is adopting a habit which will keep him in poverty through life. Debt robs a man of his self-respect, and makes him almost despise himself.(...)
Money is in some respects life fire —it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.(...)
Don't let money work against you; if you do, there is no chance for success in life so far as money is corcerned. John Randolph, the eccentric Virginian, once exclaimed in Congress, "Mr. Speaker, I have discovered the philosopher's stone: pay as you go." This is indeed nearer to the philosopher's stone than any alchemist has ever yet arrived.
The Art of Money Getting
by Phineas Taylor Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum
