Famous Quotes

Famous Quotes

This page contains famousquotes from people that made bold statements about what was thought to be impossible. Historyis filled with instances where most of society thought something was impossibleonly to be proven wrong. Usually the people that do the impossible are persecutedand ridiculed. 

We have come to theconclusion that nothing is impossible. And when someone says that "that'simpossible", what they are really saying is that they don't know how to doit. 

Read these quotations and see if they don't illustrate our point!

“I think there is a world market for maybe fivecomputers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomingsto be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherentlyof no value to us.” – Western Union, internal memo, 1876

“The concept is interesting and well-formed, butin order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.” – A YaleUniversity management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposingreliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found FedEx.

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”– Harry Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

“I’m just glad it will be Clark Gable fallingon his face and not Gary Cooper” – Gary Cooper on his decision not to take theleading role in “Gone With the Wind”

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar musicis on its way out.” – Decca Recording Company, rejecting The Beatles,1962

“Heavier than air flying machines areimpossible.” – Lord Kelvin,President, Royal Society, 1895

“There is no reason anyone would want a computerin their home.” – Ken Olson, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital EquipmentCorporation, 1977

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t havedone the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’tdo this.” – Spencer Silver, on the work that led to the unique adhesives on 3–MPost–It notepads 

“The wireless music box has no imaginablecommercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” – DavidSarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio inthe 1920’s

“Everything that can be invented has beeninvented.” – Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. PatentOffice, 1899

“So we went to Atari and said, “Hey we’vegot this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, what do you thinkabout funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay oursalary, we’ll come work for you.” And they said, “No”. So then we wentto Hewlett Packard and they said, “Hey, we don’t need you; you haven’teven got through college yet.” – Apple Computer Co–Founder Steve Jobs onattempts to get Atari and HP interested in he and Steve Wozniak’s personalcomputer.

“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculousfiction.” – Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology atToulouse, 1872

“You want to have consistent and uniform muscledevelopment across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a factof life. You have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterablecondition of weight training.” – Response to Arthur Jones,who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus.

“Airplanes are interesting toys, but are of nomilitary value.” – Marechal FerdinandFoch, Professor of strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the groundto try to find oil? You’re crazy.” – Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist tohis project to drill for oil in 1859