I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a read more

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore and diverting myself and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay before me all undiscovered.

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.

Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.

Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of read more

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.

Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means.

Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means.

Thomas Jefferson still survives.

Thomas Jefferson still survives.

I have tried so hard to do right.

I have tried so hard to do right.

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.

Don't worry, it's not loaded.

Don't worry, it's not loaded.