2 quotations linked to Struggles and Triumphs by or associated with P. T. Barnum, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Enterprise, effort, resilience, business judgment, self-reliance, setbacks, recovery and practical execution.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“Whether I should sink or swim depended wholly upon my own energy.”
Barnum frames the newly acquired museum as a situation in which sustained personal effort and management would determine whether the venture survived.
Source note: Struggles and Triumphs, 1872 author’s edition; Barnum is describing the beginning of his ownership and management of the American Museum.
“The situation was disheartening, but I had energy, experience, health and hope.”
The memoir acknowledges discouraging circumstances while inventorying the practical and psychological resources Barnum believed remained available to him.
Source note: Struggles and Triumphs, 1872 author’s edition; this is autobiographical reflection from Barnum’s account of rebuilding after a difficult business period.