"Computers in the future may
weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless
march of science, 1949
"I think there is a world
market for maybe five computers."
--Chairman of IBM, 1943
"I have traveled the length
and breadth of this country and talked with the best
people, and I can assure you that data processing is a
fad that won't last out the year."
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice
Hall, 1957
"But what ... is it good
for?"
--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of
IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
"There is no reason anyone
would want a computer in their home."
--President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment
Corp., 1977
"This 'telephone' has too many
shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no value to
us."
--Western Union internal memo, 1876.
"The wireless music box has no
imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message
sent to nobody in particular?"
--David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings
for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
"The concept is interesting
and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,'
the idea must be feasible."
--A Yale University management professor in response to
Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery
service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
"Who the hell wants to hear
actors talk?"
--Warner Brothers, 1927.
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark
Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary
Cooper."
--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading
role in "Gone With The Wind."
"A cookie store is a bad idea.
Besides, the market research reports say America likes
crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you
make."
--Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields'
Cookies.
"We don't like their sound,
and guitar music is on the way out."
--Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"Heavier-than-air flying
machines are impossible."
--President, Royal Society, 1895.
"If I had thought about it, I
wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was
full of examples that said you can't do this."
--Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique
adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
"So we went to Atari and said,
'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some
of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or
we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our
salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So
then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we
don't need you. You haven't got through college
yet.'"
--Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to
get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's
personal computer.
"Professor Goddard does not
know the relation between action and reaction and the
need to have something better than a vacuum against which
to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out
daily in high schools."
--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's
revolutionary rocket work.
"You want to have consistent
and uniform muscle development across all of your
muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You
just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an
unalterable condition of weight training."
--Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the
"unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.
"Drill for oil? You mean drill
into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his
project to drill for oil in 1859.
"Stocks have reached what
looks like a permanently high plateau."
--Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
"Airplanes are interesting
toys but of no military value."
--Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
"Everything that can be
invented has been invented."
--Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"Louis Pasteur's theory of
germs is ridiculous fiction".
--Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
"The abdomen, the chest, and
the brain will forever be shut from the
intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."
--British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to
Queen Victoria 1873.
"640K ought to be enough for
anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1981