And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all, safaris in Vietnam
-- Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the late 1960s

Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out 
of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.
-- TIME, 1966

Ours has been the first [expedition], and doubtless to be the last, to visit this 
profitless locality.
-- Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. 
As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the 
people who have produced them and who guard them.
-- General Tommy Franks, March 22nd, 2003

Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.
-- Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison's light bulb, 1880.

The ordinary "horseless carriage" is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its 
price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use 
as the bicycle.
-- Literary Digest, 1899

That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested 
by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been 
introduced.
-- Scientific American, Jan. 2 edition, 1909

Television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
-- Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946

In less than 25 years the motor-car will be obsolete. 
-- Sir Philip Gibbs, 1928

Rail travel at high speeds is not possible... passengers, unable to breathe, 
would die of asphyxia.
-- Dionysius Lardner, 1823

By the year 2000, there will be no C, X, or Q in our every-day alphabet...
They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been 
adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed 
words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than 
any other. Russian will rank second.
-- Ladies' Home Journal, December, 1900

All marriages will be happy in the 1990s.
-- author John Haberton, 1893

Believe me, Germany is unable to wage war.
-- British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, 1934

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.

Dear Mr. President: 
The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation 
known as "railroads." ... As you may well know, Mr. President, "railroad" carriages 
are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by "engines" which, in addition 
to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the
countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and 
children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such 
breakneck speed. 
--Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York

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."

Who ever heard of Casablanca? I don't want to star opposite some unknown Swedish broad. 
-- George Raft, on the role of Rick in Casablanca. 

...we still feel that color is hard on the eyes for so long a picture.
-- Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times Film Review in its original 1939 review of
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 Jobbs 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 vaccuum 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.
-- Driller 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

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

The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.
-- Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.

This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He's doomed.
-- Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast.

Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.
-- Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vaccuum tube and father of television.

If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems 
to be a minor one.
-- Dr. W.C. Heuper of the National Cancer Institute, as quoted in the New York Times 
on April 14, 1954.

For the majority of People, smoking has a beneficial effect.
-- Dr. Ian G. Macdonald, Los Angeles surgeon, quoted in "Newsweek", Nov.18th 1963.

Can anyone be so foolish as to believe that there are men whose feet are higher than 
their heads, or places where things may be hanging downwards, trees growing backwards, 
or rain falling upwards? Where is the marvel of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon if we are 
to allow of a hanging world at the Antipodes?
-- Lactantius

Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little.
--M-G-M executive, reacting to Fred Astaire's screen test, 1928

Let me tell you something about this AIDS epidemic. There is not one single
case of AIDS reported in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.
--Sen. Jesse Helms, October, 1988

Forget it, Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel.
--Irving Thalberg's warning to Louis B. Mayer regarding Gone With the Wind.

He'll never be any good.
--Robert Irsay, owner of the Baltimore Colts, after trading newly drafted quarterback 
John Elway.

Just a fad, a passing fancy.
--Phil Wrigley, Chicago Cubs owner, commenting on the advent of night baseball, C. 1935

Bill Clinton will lose to any Republican nominee who doesn't drool on the stage.
--The Wall Street Journal, editorial, October 30, 1995

Race is not, and will not be an issue in this case.
--Robert Shapiro, during a private conference in the chambers of Judge Lance Ito, October 19, 1994