Meaning of "I never give a sucker an even break"

What does this phrase mean?

I never give a sucker an even break.

Does it mean that the author of this saying is unwilling to offer somebody who he doesn't like a break/rest while he is working?

Solution 1:

Here break is used in the sense of division. To give someone an even break is, centrally, to divide something fairly with them, and metaphorically, to make a fair deal with them.

A sucker is someone who is easily fooled. This is colloquial American English from the nineteenth century, and nobody’s sure anymore why it means that. One explanation is that it originally referred to a very young farm animal, one that hadn't yet been weaned (e.g. a suckling pig) and was transferred to people who were very new to the big city; compare greenhorn.

Thus, someone who says “I never give a sucker an even break” means that they take advantage of fools at every opportunity. This is the motto of a con man, that is, someone whose profession is tricking people out of their money.

Solution 2:

In this case "sucker" refers to someone who is particularly gullible.

The sentence suggests that he will take advantage of a person (particularly, a gullible person [the sucker]) if the opportunity arises.

It has nothing to do with liking or not liking someone. It certainly has nothing to do with working.

Solution 3:

It's from carnival showman PT Barnum - he had games of chance in his carnival that you just could not win which explains the meaning on the phrase. The date he first said this was sometime in the 1800s so it was well before the Fields' movie.