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FROM FORESIGHT.ORG  [LINK TO SOURCE]

1. WILL MAN FLY?  The limit which the rarity of the air places upon its power of supporting wings, taken in connection with the combined weight of a man and a machine, make a drawback which we should not too hastily assume our ability to overcome. The example of the bird does not prove that man can fly. The hundred and fifty pounds of dead weight which the manager of the machine must add to it over and above that necessary in the bird may well prove an insurmountable obstacle to success.” “The practical difficulties in the way of realizing the movement of such an object are obvious. The aeroplane must have its propellers. These must be driven by an engine with a source of power. Weight is an essential quality of every engine. The propellers must be made of metal, which has its weakness, and which is liable to give way when its speed attains a certain limit. And, granting complete success, imagine the proud possessor of the aeroplane darting through the air at a speed of several hundred feet per second! It is the speed alone that sustains him. Once he slackens his speed, down he begins to fall. He may, indeed, increase the inclination of his aeroplane. Then he increases the resistance necessary to move it. Once he stops he falls a dead mass. How shall he reach the ground without destroying his delicate machinery?”  Source: Newcomb, Simon. Outlook for the Flying Machine. The Independent, October 22, 1903. pp. 2508, 2510-2511.
2. WILL MAN FLY?  The popular mind often pictures gigantic flying machines speeding across the Atlantic and carrying innumerable passengers in a way analogous to our modern steamships…It seems safe to say that such ideas must be wholly visionary, and even if a machine could get across with one or two passengers the expense would be prohibitive to any but the capitalist who could own his own yacht. Another popular fallacy is to expect enormous speed to be obtained. It must be remembered that the resistance of the air increases as the square of the speed and thework as the cube…If with 30 h.p. we can now attain a speed of 40 m.p.h., then in order to reach a speed of 100 m.p.h., we must use a motor capable of 470 h.p…it is clear that with our present devices there is no hope of competing for racing speed with either our locomotives or our automobiles.”  Source: Clarke, Arthur C. Profiles of the Future. New York, Harper and Row, 1962. pp.3-4.
3. WILL MAN HAVE ALTERNATING CURRENT ELECTRICAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION? There is no plea which will justify the use of high-tension and alternating currents, either in a scientific or a commercial sense. They are employed solely to reduce investment in copper wire and real estate.” My personal desire would be to prohibit entirely the use of alternating currents. They are unnecessary as they are dangerous…I can therefore see no justification for the introduction of a system which has no element of permanency and every elements of danger to life and property. …I have always consistently opposed high-tension and alternating systems of electric lighting…not only on account of danger, but because of their general unreliability and unsuitability for any general system of distribution. Source: Edison, Thomas A. The Dangers of Electric Lighting, North American Review, November, 1889. pp.630, 632, 633.
4. WHY UNDERGROUND ELECTRICAL WIRES WON’T WORK: The public may rest absolutely assured that safety will not be secured by burying these wires. The condensation of moisture, the ingress of water, the dissolving influence of coal gas and air-oxidation upon the various insulating compounds will result only in the transfer of deaths to man-holes, houses, stores, and offices, through the agency of the telephone, the low-pressure systems, and the apparatus of the high-tension current itself.” Source: Edison, Thomas A., “The Dangers of Electric Lighting.” North American Review, November 1889. p.629.
5. WILL ELECTRICAL STREET LIGHTING WORK? I do not think there is the slightest chance of its [electricity] competing, in a general way, with gas. There are defects about the electric light which, unless some essential change takes place, must entirely prevent its application to ordinary lighting purposes.”  Source: Remarks of Mr. Keates, Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on Lighting by Electricity in Report from the Select Committee on Lighting by Electricity. London, House of Commons, 1879. p. 146.
6. WILL GAS ENGINES WORK FOR CARS? Ford’s experiments with gas engines: “…my gas-engine experiments were no more popular with the president of the company than my first mechanical leanings were with my father. It was not that my employer objected to experiments — only to experiments with gas engine. I can still hear him say: ‘Electricity yes, that’s the coming thing. But gas–no.'” “The Edison Company offered me the general superintendency of the company but only on condition that I would give up my gas engine and devote myself to something really useful.” Source: Ford, Henry. My Life and Work. New York, Doubleday, Page and Company, 1922. pp. 34-35.