First, your use of that statement betrays that you don't know what you're talking about. Charles Holland Duell, the head of the patent office who supposedly said this, never made such a statement. In fact, he said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE: "In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. I almost wish that I might live my life over again to see the wonders which are at the threshold."
Second, neither Duell nor the various others to whom this claim is attributed are/were physicists. At one time, long ago, I was one.
Third, what I would urge you to "close" is your office at the Flat Earth Society, because we have roughly as much evidence that superluminal travel is impossible as we have the the Earth is round.
How did that Duell myth get such legs?
Superluminal travel IS impossible, thats why you have to distort space/time to make the distance shorter.
The sun has proven this is possible by bending light showing starts that are BEHIND it, during an eclipse
You must not have been much of a physicist with such a closed mind