
“Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.”
As quoted by Martha Graham, in Dance Observer, Volumes 24-27 (1957), p. 5
Commonly attributed to Barnum, there is much testimony of contemporaries that he never actually said this, and in "P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute" http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html R. J. Brown asserts that it actually originated with a banker named David Hannum, in reference to one of Barnum's hoaxes: a replica of the Cardiff Giant.
Misattributed
“Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.”
As quoted by Martha Graham, in Dance Observer, Volumes 24-27 (1957), p. 5
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”
Source: The Passage Trilogy, The Passage (2010)
“The dying process begins the minute you are born, but it accelerates during dinner parties.”
As quoted in Funny Ladies : The Best Humor from America's Funniest Women (2001) by Bill Adler, p. 80
“To fear is to die every minute.”
Tears and Saints (1937)