Everything that can be invented has been invented. -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

Everything that can be invented has been invented. -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

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.

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.

All fled--all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over, and the lamps expire.

All fled--all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over, and the lamps expire.

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible. read more

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible. -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.).

Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.

Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, read more

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