"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is of no value to us."
Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?.. You're crazy."
Drillers who Edwin Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Patent Office, 1899.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would want to pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnof's associates response to his urgings for investments in the radio in the 1920s.

"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 in our high schools."
1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddards revolutionary rocket work.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, CEO of IBM, 1943.

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and one half tons."
Popular Mechanics, 1949.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of the country and talked to the best people and I assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
The editor in charge of business books for Prentiss Hall, 1957.

"But what is it good for?"
Engineer in advanced computer systems of IBM,1968, commenting on the microchip.

"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 give it to you. 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 Jobson attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olsen, President, Chairman, and Founder of Digital Equipment, 1977.

"640k is enough memory for anybody."
Bill Gates, 1981.


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