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

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

I am still progressing.

I am still progressing.

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And read more

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices.

A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and read more

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.

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. read more

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.

Oh my, it's very beautiful over there.

Oh my, it's very beautiful over there.

No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris. -- Orville Wright.

No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris. -- Orville Wright.

The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular? read more

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.