There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. [Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977]

640K ought to be enough for anybody. [Bill Gates (1955-), in 1981]

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. [Thomas Watson (1874-1956), Chairman of IBM, 1943]

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 student Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)]

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

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

The time seemed forever, when you could buy www.mydirtysocks.com or its likes and make tons of money from it. [IT-person on MTV]

The ATLAS experiment has now entered the construction phase [...], with a strict schedule to meet the first collisionis at LHC in summer 2005. [Introduction of ATLAS TDR]

Error, no keyboard - press F1 to continue. [PC Bios message]

Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction. [Pierre Pachet, professor of physiology, 1872]

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]

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a mean of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. [Western Union internal memo, 1876]

The problem with television is that the people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn't time for it. [New York Times, 1949]

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

It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years. [John von Neumann (1949)]

No woman in my time will be Prime Minister... [Margaret Thatcher The Sunday Telegraph, 1969]

There will never be a bigger plane built. [A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that holds ten people.]

While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility. [Lee De Forest, 1926]

To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth - all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances. [Lee De Forest, 1926]

Unionen er stendoed. [Statsminister Poul Schluter om EU, 1986]

The last wrong prediction about the future has not been made yet! [Troels C. Petersen, 2001]