Some All-Time Great Predictions: 

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. 

"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. 

"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. 

"Who the hell 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 on his decision not to take the
leading role in "Gone With The Wind." 

"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. 

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

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

"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. 

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing,
even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about
funding us?  Or we'll give it to you.  We just want to do it.  Pay
our salary, we'll come work for you.'  And they said, 'No.'  So
then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need
you.  You haven't got through college yet.'"  Apple Computer Inc.
founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in
his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer. 

"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. 

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across
all of your muscles? It can't be done.  It's just a fact of life. 
You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an
unalterable condition of weight training."  Response to Arthur
Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus. 

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

"I think there's a world market for about five computers."  Thomas
J Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM. 

"The bomb will never go off.  I speak as an expert in explosives." 
Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project. 

"This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it.  He's doomed." 
Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast. 

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." 
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929. 

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." 
Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de
Guerre. 

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific
advances." Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and
father of television.