Quotes and Links

-- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television."

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."

-- 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.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

-- Bill Gates, 1981

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.)

"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 .

"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 , France .

"Everything that can be invented has been invented,"

-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." -- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself." -- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

"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.

And last but not least...

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too." - William Shakespeare

"The Image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy." - Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Critic, Translato

""Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily." - George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-born American Philosopher, Writer

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

"Happiness is an agreeable sensation, arising from contemplating the misery of others." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913) American Author

Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913)

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." - William James

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." Gen. George S. Patton

"Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us." - Henri Matisse

The pupil, who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do." - John Stuart Mill

"Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain't so." - Mark Twain (1835-1910)

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone." - Coco Chanel (1883-1971) French Couturier

For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong." - Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, contemplate an exquisite painting and, if possible, speak a few sensible words Goethe

There is nought better than to be with noble souls in company." - Bhagavad-Gita (400BC) Sanskrit Poem incorporated into the Mahabharata

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Soren Kierkegaard