Famous Last Words

"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."
-- Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment
Corp., 1977.


"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as 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 1920's.


"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.
Then literature is full of examples that said you can't do
this." -- Spencer Silver, on the work that led to the unique
adhesives for 3m 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