In 1894, A.A. Michelson, who with E.W. Morley seven years earlier experimentally demonstrated the constancy of the speed of light, said that the future of science would consist of "adding a few decimal places to the results already obtained."
Perhaps the guy who got it wrong most was the director of the US patent Office: in 1899 he assured President McKinley that "everything that can be invented has already been invented."
