The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular? read more

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.

Death is a law and not a punishment. Three things ought to console us for giving up life; the friends read more

Death is a law and not a punishment. Three things ought to console us for giving up life; the friends whom we have lost, the few persons worth of being loved whom we leave behind us, and finally the memory of our stupidities and the assurance that they are now going to stop.

If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said read more

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.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of read more

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.

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a read more

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. -- 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy. -- Drillers whom Edwin read more

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

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a read more

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore and diverting myself and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay before me all undiscovered.

I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not read more

I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.