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P.T. Barnum supposedly said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Who, however, said, "You can fool too many of the people too much of the time"?

Question #58275. Asked by lanfranco.
Last updated May 17 2021.

MrsAce
Answer has 0 votes
MrsAce
20 year member
513 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
James Thurber

Jul 11 2005, 6:40 PM
barker111
Answer has 6 votes
Currently Best Answer
barker111

Answer has 6 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Actually Abraham Lincoln was the original sayer of the above first quote:

link http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27074.html

Jul 11 2005, 6:47 PM
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lanfranco
Answer has 6 votes
lanfranco
19 year member
4407 replies avatar

Answer has 6 votes.
Sorry, barker, but it is not at all clear who said it, which is why I used the word "supposedly." As qualified historians have pointed out, no documentation has ever supported the attribution to Lincoln, and the Barnum attribution is also disputed. My guess is that a journalist came up with it.

But yay, MrsAce! My hometown boy, humorist James Thurber, did publish the second remark, in "The New Yorker" on April 29, 1939.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thurber

Jul 11 2005, 7:10 PM
barker111
Answer has 0 votes
barker111

Answer has 0 votes.
I found a site contributing the quote to Lincoln, do you have a site that contributes it to Barnum?

Jul 11 2005, 7:23 PM
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lanfranco
Answer has 6 votes
lanfranco
19 year member
4407 replies avatar

Answer has 6 votes.
Many. Here are two in which the lack of a clear attribution is noted:
link http://members.tripod.com/~mr_sedivy/quotes17.html
worldofquotes.com/topic/Deceit/1 no longer exists

Spofford, incidentally (mentioned in the first site), would have been Ainsworth Spofford, 6th Librarian of Congress (1864-97), appointed by Lincoln himself. Under him, the LC's collection of Lincolniana grew precipitously.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainsworth_Rand_Spofford


Response last updated by gtho4 on May 17 2021.
Jul 11 2005, 8:22 PM
peasypod
Answer has 5 votes
peasypod
21 year member
3273 replies

Answer has 5 votes.
And yet another one which shows a lacking in clear attribution.

link http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln#Misattributions

Apparently Lincoln was cited as saying it in a speech in 1858, but there are no records of this.

Jul 11 2005, 8:52 PM
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