"Students today can't prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend upon their slates which are more expensive. What will they do when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!" -Teachers Conference,1790
"Students today depend upon paper too much. They don't know how to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?" -Principals Association, 1815
"Students today depend too much upon ink. They don't know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil!" -National Association of Teachers, 1907
"Students today depend upon store bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run our of ink they will be unable to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education." -The Rural American Teacher, 1929
"Students today depend upon these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib (not to mention sharpening their own quills). We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of learning how to cope in the real business world, which is not so extravagant." -PTA Gazette,1941
"Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American virtues of thrift and frugality being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries." -Federal Teacher, 1950
In 1926, Lee de Forest, the man who invented the cathode ray tube, said, "While theoretically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.
In 1943, Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM, said, "I think there is a world market for about five computers.
In 1945, Admiral William Leahy told President Truman about the atomic bomb: "This is the biggest fool thing we've ever done- the bomb will never go off- and I speak as an expert on explosives.
A recording company that turned down the Beatles in 1962: "We don't think they will do anything in their market. Guitar groups are on their way out.
According to Business Week in 1968: "With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself.
Ken Olson, President, Chairman, and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) was is quoted as saying in 1977 that "...there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
Thanks to Jim McCrory from NSULA (Northwestern State U of LA) for passing on the following quotes to me
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." --The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
"But what . . . is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
"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 on the proposal of film with sound
"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 couldn't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3M "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 HP 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 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 L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." --Pierre Pachet, professor of physiology at Toulouse, 1872
"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." --Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873
A young bride was proudly preparing a ham supper for her new husband as her best friend was visiting her
In her preparation of the ham, she cut the shank end off the ham before putting it in the baking pan. The friend asked her why she did this. The bride replied that that was the way her mother had taught her
But this set her to thinking about it, so she asked her mother why they cut off the shank of the ham before putting it in the oven to bake. Her mother replied that that was the way her mother had taught her to do it
At a family gathering the bride asked her grandmother what the reason for doing this was
"Well, land sakes, girl, it wouldn't fit into my pan unless I cut the shank off first."