"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

"The phonograph has no commercial value at all.” – Thomas Edison, American inventor, 1880s

"If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.” – W. C. Heuper, National Cancer Institute, 1954

"They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist-" – Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick, spoken as he looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864

"Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” – Grover Cleveland, U.S. President, 1905

"I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” – The San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a submission by Rudyard Kipling in 1889

"Just so-so in center field.” – New York Daily News after the premiere of Willie Mays, 1951

"I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” – Gary Cooper, on declining the lead role in Gone with the Wind

"You better get secretarial work or get married.” – Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modelling Agency, advising would-be model Marilyn Monroe in 1944

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." Kenneth Olsen, President and founder of Digital Equiptment Corporation, in 1977

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French Military Strategist and Future World War 1 Commander, in 1911

"(Man will never reach the Moon) regardless of all future scientific advances." Dr Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion Tube and Father of Radio, in 1926

"(Television) won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century-Fox in 1946

"We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." Decca Records rejecting the Beatles, in 1962

"For the majority of people, the use of tobacco has a beneficial effect." Dr. Ian G. Macdonald, Los Angeles Surgeon, as quoted in Newsweek, November 18, 1969

"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, in 1876

"The Earth is the center of the Universe." Ptolemy, the great Egyptian astronomer, in the second century

"Nothing of importance happened today." Written by King George III of England on July 4, 1776