"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.
"
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
"
640K ought to be enough for anybody."
–– Bill Gates, 1981
"
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
"
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."
"
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.
"
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.
"
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.
"
Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
––Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
Superieure de Guerre.
"
Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
––Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
"
Everything that can be invented has been invented."
––Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents,
1899.
