- P.T. Barnum: Hyperbole isn't the worst crime. Men suffer more from imagining too little than too much.
- Phillip Carlyle: They come to see you... *Your* crazy ideas, *your* new acts. The unusual...
- P.T. Barnum: Well then how about you show them a smile? That'd be unusual.
- Lettie Lutz: [singing] When the sharpest words wanna cut me down/Gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out/This is brave, this is bruised, this is who I'm meant to be/This is me.
- Lettie Lutz: You don't get it, Barnum. It's not about the money. Our own mothers were ashamed of us, they hid us our whole lives.
- Queen Victoria: You're even smaller than I imagined!
- Tom Thumb: Well you're not exactly reaching the top shelf yourself, sweetheart.
- P.T. Barnum: P. T. Barnum, at your service.
- [shakes Tom's hand, then gets down on his knee to his height]
- P.T. Barnum: I am putting together a show, and I need a star.
- Tom Thumb: You want people to laugh at me.
- P.T. Barnum: [smiling] Well they're laughing anyway, kid, so you might as well get paid.
- P.T. Barnum: Hey sweetie, who's that young man over there?
- Charity Barnum: Oh that's Phillip Carlyle. A bit of a scandal, they say. His last play was a hit in London.
- P.T. Barnum: Play? Pay good money to watch people stand around and talk for two hours and they call *me* a conman.
- P.T. Barnum: [singing] Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for/Been searching in the dark, your sweat soakin' through the floor/And buried in your bones there's an ache that you can't ignore/Taking your breath, stealing your mind/And all that was real is left behind...
- P.T. Barnum: [hands Phillip his top hat] This is for you.
- Phillip Carlyle: What will *you* be doing?
- P.T. Barnum: Watch my girls grow up. The show must go on.
- Phillip Carlyle: I can't just run off and join the circus.
- P.T. Barnum: Why not? You clearly have a flair for show business.
- P.T. Barnum: Where is that singing coming from?
- [Barnum spots Lettie behind a curtain. She stops singing]
- P.T. Barnum: Ma'am, you are...
- [he pulls the curtain back, revealing Lettie's bearded face. Barnum pauses]
- Lettie Lutz: You need to leave, sir.
- P.T. Barnum: You are beautiful. You are unique.
- Jenny Lind: You are the American. I believe I might have heard of you.
- P.T. Barnum: Oh well, If you've heard of me all the way over here, I must have been doing something right.
- Jenny Lind: That, or something very wrong.
- P.T. Barnum: In the world of publicity there is hardly any difference.
- Jenny Lind: I believe those are the words of a scoundrel, Mr Barnum.
- P.T. Barnum: A showman, Miss Lind, just a showman. The best on my side of the Atlantic.
- Anne Wheeler: [singing to Philip] You know I want you/It's not a secret I try to hide/But I can't have you/We're bound to break and my hands are tied.
- James Gordon Bennett: Tell me, Mr. Barnum, does it bother you that everything you're selling is fake?
- P.T. Barnum: Do these smiles seem fake? It doesn't matter where they come from. The joy is real.
- James Gordon Bennett: So you are a philanthropist?
- P.T. Barnum: Well, hyperbole isn't the worst crime. Men suffer more from imagining too little than too much.
- James Gordon Bennett: The creed of a true fraud.
- P.T. Barnum: Mr Bennett, when was the last time you smiled? Or had a good laugh? A real laugh. A theater critic who can't find joy in the theater. Now who is the fraud?
- James Gordon Bennett: I never liked your show, but I always thought the people did
- P.T. Barnum: They did. They do!
- James Gordon Bennett: Putting people of all Shapes, Sizes, Colours. Putting them on stage together and presenting them as equals, another critic might have even called it a celebration of humanity.
- P.T. Barnum: I would've liked that.
- [after Barnum becomes 50/50 partners with Phillip Calyle]
- Phillip Carlyle: The only thing is I don't know how we are ever going to afford a building.
- P.T. Barnum: Right.
- [Long and deep sigh]
- P.T. Barnum: We don't need a building. Real estate in Manhattan is a terrible investment. Why, I can get land down by the docks for almost nothing. All we need is a tent!
- P.T. Barnum: I can't fool the bank into loaning me more money, so... I'm really sorry to disappoint you all.
- Tom Thumb: Don't worry, Barnum. We've gotten used to it by now.
- Mr. O'Malley: [showing Phineas one of Bennett's reviews] This is bad.
- P.T. Barnum: "Criminal". "Degrading". "A circus". I like "circus".
- Mr. Carlyle: Philip, have you no shame? Associating yourself with the Barnum business is one thing, but parading around with the help!
- [Anne leaves, humiliated]
- Phillip Carlyle: Anne! Anne!
- Phillip Carlyle: [turns coldly to his father] How dare you speak to her like that.
- Mrs. Carlyle: You forget your place, Philip.
- Phillip Carlyle: My place? Mother if this is my place, then I don't want any part of it.
- P.T. Barnum: [seeing Jenny for the first time] Who's that?
- Phillip Carlyle: The opera singer?
- P.T. Barnum: Singer, huh?
- Phillip Carlyle: She's the most famous performer in all of Europe. She sold out La Scala a dozen times. Not to mention the French Opera.
- P.T. Barnum: Ah.
- [he grabs Phillip's arm and leads him forward]
- Phillip Carlyle: What are you doing?
- P.T. Barnum: Following you, so you can introduce me to Ms. Lynd.
- Phillip Carlyle: Introduce you?
- P.T. Barnum: Yeah.
- Phillip Carlyle: I don't know her.
- P.T. Barnum: Everybody knows her. You just said so yourself.
- Phillip Carlyle: Yeah, exactly. You don't just march up to someone like this.
- P.T. Barnum: Why not? We're personable. She's a person.
- Charity Barnum: [seeing the house Phineas bought for them] Don't tell me bought this house just to rub my parents' noses in your success.
- P.T. Barnum: Well, that wasn't the only reason. This is the life I promised you.
- P.T. Barnum: Folks, if you're looking to get paid, the money's gone. There's nothing left to give...
- Lettie Lutz: Shut up, Barnum. You just don't get it. Our own mothers were ashamed of us. Hid us our whole lives. Then you pull us out of the shadows. Now you're giving up on us too. Maybe you are a fraud. Maybe it was about making a buck. But you gave us a real family.
- W.D. Wheeler: And the circus... that was our home. We want our home back.
- Phillip Carlyle: Before I met you, I had a name, an inheritance, and an invitation to every party in town. Now thanks to you, all that's gone. All I have is love, friendship, and a work that I adore. You brought joy into my life.
- Lettie Lutz: Into all our lives.
- Lord of Leeds: Hear, hear!
- P.T. Barnum: If only the bank would take joy as collateral.
- Phillip Carlyle: Well they might not, but I will. I own 10% of the show. Knowing who I was working for, I had the good sense to take my cut weekly.
- P.T. Barnum: Phillip, I can't let you gamble it on me.
- Anne Wheeler: Sure you can!
- Lettie Lutz: Don't turn sensible on us now!
- Phillip Carlyle: Partners. 50/50.
- Phillip Carlyle: Anne, they're small minded people. Why do you care what they think?
- Anne Wheeler: It's not just them. You've never had anyone look at you the way your parents just looked at me. The way everyone would look at us.
- P.T. Barnum: I've brought hardship on you and on our family. You warned me. I wouldn't listen. I just... I wanted to be more than I was.
- Charity Barnum: I never wanted anything but the man I fell in love with.
- P.T. Barnum: [Sung] And let this promise/in me start/like an anthem in my heart/
- Charity Barnum: However big/however small
- P.T. Barnum: From now on... from now on
- Charity Barnum: They'd have to stop judging people and actually start doing something with their lives.
- P.T. Barnum: Nothing happened!
- Charity Barnum: Oh, nothing happened... it's on the front of every paper in New York.
- P.T. Barnum: That's because she orchestrated the photo. I'm not in love with her!
- Charity Barnum: Of course you're not. Not with her, not with me, not with anybody. Just you and your show.
- P.T. Barnum: Charity. This isn't the life I promised you.
- Charity Barnum: But I have everything I want.
- P.T. Barnum: What about the magic?
- Charity Barnum: What do you call those two girls?
- Man playing cards: Hey! You looking for freaks?
- P.T. Barnum: [to Lettie and the others] Who's gonna pay admission if you're out there for all the world to see?
- Mr. Hallett: She'll be back. Sooner or later, she'll tire of your life... of having nothing, and she'll come running back home.
- Jenny Lind: Why me?
- P.T. Barnum: People come to my show for the pleasure of being hoodwinked. Just once, I'd love to give them something real.