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Science
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"The ordinary 'horseless carriage' is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and
although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never come into as
common use as the bicycle."
- The Literary Digest, 1889.
"Louis Pasteur's
theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
"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.
"X-rays are
a hoax." and "Radio has no future."
- Physicist Lord Kelvin
(1824-1907).
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"The flying machine will eventually be fast; they will be
used in sport, but they are not to be thought of as commercial carriers."
- Octave Chanute, aviation pioneer in 1904.
"This
boy will never amount to much."
- Albert Einstein's primary school
teacher.
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military
value."
- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure
de Guerre.
"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.
"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.
"Landing and moving around on the moon offers so
many serious problems for human beings that it may take science another 200
years to lick them."
- Science Digest, August 1948.
And
at last a breath of fresh air. Dr. Sagan will be sorely missed.
"It is
far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion,
however satisfying and reassuring."
"It's better to light a candle then
to curse the darkness."
"Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved
vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history."
- Carl Sagan