WhoDat!656

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
- Dr. Lee DeForest, father of radio and grandfather of television, in 1957

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
- Admiral William Leahy, about the US atomic bomb project

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
- Robert Millikan, Nobel laureate in physics, 1923

"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, commenting on the microchip, 1968

"640K [of computer memory] 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' [grade], 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 Clarke 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 whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist for 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."
- Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, France


"Man will not fly for 50 years."
- Wilbur Wright to his brother Orville in 1901


"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris."
Orville Wright, in 1908

"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 anyone could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."
- Thomas Watson, 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

"There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the moon, because of insurmountable barriers to escaping the earth's gravity."
- University of Chicago astronomer F. R. Moulton in 1932

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

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."