Vision and Perseverance!

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 walked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year.

—Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

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

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

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, 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 Economics, Yale University, 1929

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

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

—Bill Gates, 1981