[ExI] oldies but goodies

[William Flynn Wallace]

'Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.'  Popular
Mechanics, 1949

"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, after Bell offered to sell them the rights

'The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.  Who would pay
for a message sent to nobody in particular.'  Associate of NBC president
David Sarnoff, responding to his recommendation that they invest in radio.
1920s

'We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out'.  Decca
records board, rejecting the Beatles, 1962

'Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.'  Lord Kelvin 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 adhesive that led to Post-Its

'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.'  NYT editorial, 1921, about rocket work

'Everything has can be invented has been invented.'  Commissioner of US
Patents Charles Duell, 1899

'Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.'  Pierre Pachet,
Professor of physiology at Toulouse, 1872

and the most famous one:

'640k ought to be enough for anybody' - Bill Gates 1981

I can't remember the origin or author, but it was a Congressman around the
time income tax laws were enacted -
'I can see the day where the rates may go as high as 10%!'
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