Cette page de citations, apparemment farfelues mais cependant tout ce qu'il y a de réelles, se veut un (modeste) hommage au génie, comme nous l'avons vu s'exprimer à des degrés divers, par exemple, avec Albert Einstein, ou plus récemment le docteur Antoine Nader , et surtout, surtout, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dont l'activité incessante et la compassion illimitée pour l'humanité ainsi que la profonde connaissance de la valeur la plus profonde des lois naturelles sont une inspiration pour tous.
C'est ainsi qu'en son temps, Einstein se vit reprocher le fait qu'il était juif. Aujourd'hui, les détracteurs français de Maharishi pensent faire bonne figure en faisant remarquer sur un ton méprisant que Maharishi est d'origine hindou...
Heureusement pour le bonheur de l'humanité, les gens de talents reconnaissent rapidement le génie et désirent naturellement s'associer avec lui, gràce à quoi la vision géniale ou les découvertes "en avance sur leur temps" finissent par s'intègrer au paysage social et les populations peuvent alors commencer à utiliser la nouvelle connaissance.
L'ensemble de ce phénomène de controverses puis d'assimilation semble d'ailleurs connu de la sagesse populaire qui l'a résumé sobrement par un dicton, joyeusement transmis par mon cher père, jadis professeur de sciences physiques et chevalier des Palmes académiques : "Les chiens aboient, la caravane passe" ( plusieurs visiteurs fort sympathiques ont bien voulu me signaler l'existence de ce site où l'on peut trouver, me disent-ils, la description de ce qui pourrait être, hélas, une association de ces roquets malheureusement peureux et ignorants qui semblent essentiellement affairés à faire perdurer des croyances superstitieuses et obscurantistes, et dont les activités sont presque entièrement subventionnées par le gouvernement, c'est-à-dire payées avec votre argent, comme l'indique cet autre site, me dit-on : ces associations liberticides ne bénéficient d'aucun soutien populaire direct, mais 95% de leur financement semble provenir des pouvoirs publics 
! Voyez ici une information comparative que l'on m'a envoyée, entre ce que reçoit un groupe médical majeur et ce que reçoit l'officine d'un groupuscule anti-libertés. Scandaleux ! Et il y aussi le Vivien-gate !)
Ci-dessous, donc, ces merveilleuses citations en éloge à la créativité de tout individu, à sa liberté de penser, et au progrès qui en découle :
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a mouse. There is no evidence that people want to use these things." John Dvorak, San Francisco Examiner, February 1984.
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.
"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.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Irving
Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." Maréchal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Supérieure de Guerre.
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.
"But what ... is it good for?" Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems
Division of IBM 1968, commenting on the microchip.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
"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.
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a "C," the idea must be feasible." A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"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.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"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 on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
"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.
"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
crazy." Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
"I think there's a world market for about five computers." Thomas J Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM.
"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." Admiral
William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
"This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He's doomed." Harry
Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." Charles H. Duell,
Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"Inventions have long since reached their limit,
and I see no hope for further development." Julius Sextus Frontinus, highly regarded engineer in Rome, 1st century A.D.
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