Quote: fool born every minute (antedating earliest variant) (1806) (attrib P. T. Barnum 1890)

[Garson O'Toole]

There's a sucker born every minute.

This saying has long been attributed to P. T. Barnum (Phineas Taylor
Barnum). It is discussed in the Yale Book of Quotations, the Oxford
Dictionary of American Quotations (and other Oxford Quotation books),
Barry Popik's website, WikiQuote, and Wikipedia. Many messages about
the saying are found in the ADS-L archive.

Variants of the maxim substitute words such as fool, flat, and toot
for the word sucker. Other variants substitute time-period terms such
as week, day, and hour for minute. I attempted to find the earliest
citation while allowing any of the variants.

1806 is the date of the earliest cite that I found. The text uses the
term fool instead of sucker, and it contains an anti-Semitic
stereotype.

Citation: 1806 January, The European Magazine And London Review, Essay
on False Genius, Page 26, Vol. XLIX, James Asperne, London. (Google
Books full view, also NewspaperArchive)

... "That there vash von fool born every minute." And perhaps the
calculation might be brought to the proof, that not more than fifty
men of genius are born in half a century.

http://books.google.com/books?id=dccPAAAAQAAJ&q=fool+born#v=snippet&

The earliest attribution to P. T. Barnum I could locate is in an
advertisement dated 1890 in the Chicago Tribune for a company that
sells tailor-made clothes called Willoughby & Hill. The saying uses
the term fool instead of sucker.

Citation: 1890 October 19, Chicago Daily Tribune, Display Ad 67 by
Willoughby & Hill, Page 39. (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

Any of these so-called Dry Goods stores go into the Clothing business
by hiring a salesman from some clothing house, send him down to New
York, and when he returns they "ADVERTISE" his purchases 40 per cent
LESS than Clothing Store Prices. However, they don't care a "---" what
they say in the papers, anything to get the crowd. Barnum said many
years ago that a fool was born every minute.

http://bit.ly/aZrSQk

The second earliest attribution to P. T. Barnum that I found is also
in an advertisement by "Willoughby & Hill, American Clothiers" in the
Chicago Tribune.

Citation: 1891 November 6, Chicago Daily Tribune, Display Ad 3 by
Willoughby & Hill, Page 5. (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

The "Immortal" Barnum said every minute a new fool is born, and he
catered that way and was successful. He could have kept successfully a
"Department" Store.

http://bit.ly/9wuBoZ

Garson

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