Short selection of quotations about things that people have said were impossible, that proved possible

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

'Space travel is bunk.'  Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of the UK, 1957.

'Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.' Dionysius Lardner, Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1830s.

'While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility...' Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, 1926.