=: Famous Last Words :=

[KB]

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

-- Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899

"There will never be a bigger plane built."

-- A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that carried ten people.

"Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality."

-- Lt. Joseph Ives after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will."

-- Albert Einstein, 1932

"We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out."

--Decca executive, 1962, after turning down the Beatles.

"It will be years -- not in my time -- before a woman will become Prime Minister."

-- Margaret Thatcher, 1974

"With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the US market."

-- Business Week, August 2, 1968

"Computers may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

-- Popular Mechanics, 1949

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

-- Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

"This telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication."

-- Western Union memo, 1876

"No imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"

-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging investment in the radio in the 1920's.

"Who 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, after turning down the lead role in Gone With The Wind.

"Market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."

-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of Mrs. Fields' Cookies

"We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet."

-- Hewlett Packard excuse to Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computers instead.

"I think there's a world market for about five computers."

-- Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM.

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."

-- Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project.

"Airplanes are interesting toys, but they are of no military value whatsoever."

-- Marechal Ferdinand Fock, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

"Stocks have reached a permanently high plateau."

-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929

"No matter what happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping."

-- U.S. Secretary of Navy, December 4, 1941

"While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility."

-- Lee DeForest, inventor

"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax."

-- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin English scientist, 1899

"The expensive IBM AT personal computer, with its bland mono screen, will never be popular with the home-based market."

-- Graham Pockett, journalist, 1981

[By-Tor]

What's with this guy?:

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

-- Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

He obviously wasn't playing Breakout at the arcade!

And I think you missed one:

"Mission Accomplished!"

~President George W. Bush

[longshot]

"here, hold my beer"

"hey, watch this!"