A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and read more

A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make. -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead.

And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead.

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.

I desire to leave to the men that come after me a remembrance of me in good works.

I desire to leave to the men that come after me a remembrance of me in good works.

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.

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And read more

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices.

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.

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.).

Thomas Jefferson still survives.

Thomas Jefferson still survives.