Memorable Quotes
of the Last Two Centuries
"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 deGuerre.
"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
AGING
- Author Unknown
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