Actually a remark by Nicholas Murray Butler. <br class="br">Quoted by Watson in comments about "Think" and attributed to Nicholas Murray Butler - IBM Archives: Comments on "THINK" - Transcript https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/multimedia/think_trans.html <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Source: American Dental Association (1959) The Journal of the American Dental Association. Vol 59. p. 289.
Tom Watson: 9 quotes10 likes
Famous Tom Watson Quotes
Attributed to Watson in: Georg Blair, Sandy Meadows (1996) A Real-Life Guide to Organizational Change. p. 117.
Attributed to Watson in: William G. Dickerson (1995) In search of the ultimate practice. p. 19.
Watson (1939) in: American druggist Vol 100. p. 40.
“A man is known by the company he keeps. A company is known by the men it keeps.”
Source: Garg, Anu, A Word A Day, Wordsmith, 2016.02.17
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
Often dated to 1943. Thorough research of Watson's writings and statements have produced no example of him saying this. It appears to be a corruption of a remark by Howard Aiken that four or five computers could meet all of the United Kingdom's computing needs. See Ralph Keyes (2006), The Quote Verifier.
Misattributed
“If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”
Attributed to Watson in: Roger von Oech (1982), A Whack on the Side of the Head and Industrial participation (1987) Nr 594-603. p. 262.
