What did P.T. Barnum mean when he said 'There's a sucker born every minute'?

Question

What did that mean exactly? who's the sucker?

Oh and what did he mean by 'sucker'?

Answer 1

He meant there are always people who an unscrupulous person can take advantage of. In this case, the sucker is an innocent, unsuspecting victim and P.T. Barnum was one of the unscrupulous people.

Answer 2

Few today realize that Mr. Barnum conducted secret experiments involving aquariums, sucker-fish, and garments of the underling variety.

Having finally perfected the watertight undergarment and with ever-finer sucker fish species well underway, PT timed his development and said, "there's a suckerfish born every 39 minutes"

Unfortunately for historical accuracy, the transmission and recording clarity have sense been reduced to the abbreviated quote you mentioned above.

...

Answer 3

Well it's not that people are stupid, it's just that people have a desire to believe which leaves them gullible. I have some extremely intelligent friends who nonetheless still go around forwarding email chain letters that are obviously (to me, anyway) B.S.

Most of the time it's harmless. Being a "sucker" means you've allowed someone to take advantage of your gullibility. Personally, I've found a healthy dose of skepticism to be a good vaccine against being suckered. If someone makes a statement that sounds incredulous, try and verify it for yourself. Don't rely on statements of authority. As Carl Sagan said, claims require proof, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Answer 4

He never said this. It is just a popular myth that is attributed to him.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 5

if you agree to buy the brooklyn bridge from me, i'll be glad to explain the whole thing to you