> > "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."
> >
> > -- Thomas Watson, 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."
> >
> > -- Ken Olson, 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?"
> >
> > -- H.M. Warner, 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."
> >
> > -- Lord Kelvin, 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."
> >
> > -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University,
> > 1929.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
> >
> > -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
> > Superieure de Guerre.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Everything that can be invented has been invented."
> >
> > -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents,
> > 1899.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
> >
> > -- Pierre Pachet, 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".
> >
> > -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-
> > Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > "640K ought to be enough for anybody."
> >
> > -- Bill Gates, 1981
