This document lists numerous "killer phrases" that were used to dismiss innovative ideas throughout history. It then provides examples of ideas that were dismissed with killer phrases but later became successful, including the telephone, airplane, television, computer, and internet. The examples show that killer phrases have been used for a long time to reject new ideas that later turned out to be valuable innovations.

1. 1 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
KILLER PHRASES
If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll certainly have your own list
of killer phrases, here are my personal top ten:
1. I’ve tried it before, so it won’t work
2. We don’t have a budget for your idea;
3. Nobody will accept your idea;
4. It (your idea) will never work
5. We do not have the time to implement your idea;
6. This is a really childish idea;
7. The idea is not bad, but it isn’t practical
8. Our competitors don’t do this;
9. We’ve always done it our way, why should we follow your idea?;
10. The last person who uttered that sort of non-sense, don’t
work here anymore.

2. 2 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
Historical “Killer Phrases”
Killer Phrases are not new, they are of all times: The question is “What would have
happened if one had appreciatively understood the idea”.
...so many centuries after the Creation it is unlikely that anyone could find hitherto unknown
lands of any value.
Committee advising King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain 1486,
regarding a proposal by Christopher Columbus.
"What? You would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her
deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte tot Robert Fulton
Toen deze laatste Napoleon het ontwerp van zijn stoomboot wou verkopen
Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of
asphyxia.
- Dr. Dionysius Lardner,1830
Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy
Auteur van The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated

3. 3 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
"I watched his countenance closely to see if he was not deranged… and I was assured by other
senators after he left the room that they had no confidence in it"
- US Senator Smith of Indiana 1842
Nadat Samuel Morse zijn telegraaf had voorgesteld
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of
anyone.
- Darwin (writing in Origin of Species), 1859
Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit voice over wires and that were it possible
to do so, the thing would be of no practical value;
- Bonton Prost, 1865
Your cigarettes will never become popular.
- F. G. Alton, 1870
cigar maker, turning down Mr. John Player
It’s a great invention but who would want to use it anyway?
- Rutherford B. Hayes, US President, 1872
after a demonstration of Alexander Bell’s telephone
Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is a ridiculous fiction.
- Pierre Pachet, 1872
Professor Physiology, Toulouse
The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
- Sir William Preece, 1878
Chief Engineer, British Post Office
... good enough for our transatlantic friends ... but unworthy of the attention of practical or
scientific men.
British Parliamentary Committee, 1878
referring to Edison’s light bulb
‘With regard to the electric light, much has been said for and against it, but I think I may say
without contradiction that when the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it, and
no more will be heard of it.’
- Erasmus Wilson
Oxford University professor, 1878
Such startling announcements as these should be deprecated as being unworthy of science and
mischievous to its true progress.
Sir William Siemens, 1880
on Edison’s light bulb

4. 4 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.
Henry Morton, 1880
president of the Stevens Institute of Technology,
on Edison’s light bulb
"No mere machine will replace a reliable and honest clerk."
- Met deze zin verwierp de President van de Remington Arms Companie
De octrooirechten voor de typmachine, 1887
“X Rays are a hoax.”
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
“Radio has no future.”
- Het fameuze drieluik van
Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist.
1897
"Everything that can be invented has been invented"
- Charles H. Duell, Director of the U.S. Patent Office, 1899
Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.
- Simon Newcomb, 1902
Canadian-born American astronomer
Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
Marechal Ferdinand Foch,1904
Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre
It is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance
movement of passengers.
- American Railroad Congress, 1913
The machine gun is a much overrated weapon; two per battalion is more than sufficient.
- General Douglas Haig, 1915
Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of
the dumbest things I ever heard.
Tris Speaker, baseball expert, 1919
talking about Babe Ruth.

5. 5 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to
nobody in particular?
David Sarnoff’s associates,1921
In response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s
The radio craze will die out in time.
Thomas Edison, 1922
While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I
consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.
- Lee de Forest, American inventor and radio pioneer, 1926.
Who the hell wants to hear actor talk?”
H.M. Warner, 1927
Warner Brothers, gehuwd met
There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing
atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish
bug-a-boo..
- Robert A. Millikan (1863-1953), Nobel Prize Physics 1923
speech to the Chemists' Club (New York) 1928
There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the Moon because of
insurmountable barriers to escaping the Earth's gravity.
- Dr. Forest Ray Moulton, University of
Chicago astronomer, 1932.
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.
...any one who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking
moonshine...
- Ernest Rutherford,1933
The so-called theories of Einstein are merely the ravings of a mind polluted with liberal,
democratic nonsense which is utterly unacceptable to German men of science.
- Dr. Walter Gross, 1940

6. 6 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas J. Watson Snr., IBM Chairman, 1943
That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done – the bomb will never go off – and , and I speak
asan expert in explosives.
- Admiral William Leahy, 1945
[Advice to President Truman, when asked his opinion of the atomic bomb project.]
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, 1946
We have reached the limits of what is possible with computers.
- John Von Neumann, 1949
“Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter….”
Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman of the US Atomic Engergy Commission, 1954
There is little doubt that the most significant event affecting energy is the advent of nuclear
power...a few decades hence, energy may be free—just like the unmetered air....
- John von Neumann, scientist and member of the Atomic Energy Commission, 1955.
"Guitar groups are on the way out", and "The Beatles have no future in show business".
- Decca producer Tony Meehan (ex-drummer of the Shadows, 1962
The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the ideal must
be feasible.”
- Yale University professor, 1966
In response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service
Fred Smith Founder and CEO of FedEx
There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, President of Digital Corporation, 1977
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
- Ronald Reagan, 1980
“640K ought to be enough for anybody”.
- Bill Gates, CEO Microsoft, 1981
Door Bill zelf zwaar gecontesteerde quote… in 1996

7. 7 Reprinted excerpt of ‘Cruciale dialogen’ © Johan Roels pp 161-169
"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of
examples that said you can't do this."
- Spencer Silver, Inventor of Post-It Notes, 1982
Wireless computing will flop – permanently.
After the Wireless mobile bubble bursts this year, we will get back to stringing fibers…
- Dr. Robert Metcalfe, Ethernet inventor, 1993
The Internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996.’
- Dr. Robert Metcalfe, internet inventor, 1995
“Republican hegemony in America is now expected to last for years, maybe decades.”
Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, 2005-2007 cited by
Fred Barnes, executive editor of the news publication The Weekly Standard, 22 November
2004