Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think it quite likely that we are the only civilization within several hundred light years; otherwise we would have heard radio waves.
I hope I have helped to raise the profile of science and to show that physics is not a mystery but can be understood by ordinary people.
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
It often happens that I have an idea, but then I try to fill in the intermediate steps and find they don't work, so I have to give it up.
I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth.
Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation.
The progress of the human race in understanding the universe has established a small corner of order in an increasingly disordered universe.
According to 'M' theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, 'M' theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing.
Working with my father [Stephen Hawking ] is a great thrill - he has the amazing ability to hold enormous amounts of information in his head.
Unless mankind redesigns itself by changing our DNA through altering our genetic makeup, computer-genera ted robots will take over our world.
The more you learn, the more you know. The more you know, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why bother to learn.
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.
Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.
'The Simpsons' appearances were great fun. But I don't take them too seriously. I think 'The Simpsons' have treated my disability responsibly.
I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.
As a child, I wanted to know how things worked and to control them. With a friend, I built a number of complicated models that I could control.
[In the Universe it may be that] Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth.
[Question: Do you feel that scientists correct themselves as often as they should?] More often than politicians, but not as often as they should.
Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.
I first had the idea of writing a popular book about the universe in 1982. My intention was partly to earn money to pay my daughter's school fees.
There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?
So great a contribution to physics was Two New Sciences that scholars have long maintained that the book anticipated Isaac Newton's laws of motion.
The Planck satellite may detect the imprint of the gravitational waves predicted by inflation. This would be quantum gravity written across the sky.
If the total energy of the universe must always remain zero, and it costs energy to create a body, how can a whole universe be created from nothing?
I wouldnt be here today if it were not for the NHS, I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.
Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.
One big contribution my father [Stephen Hawking] has made is to show that having a disability does not bar you from leading a full and eventful life.
I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.
The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.
In real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to space-time and at which the laws of science break down.
One can't prove that God doesn't exist. But science makes God unnecessary. The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.
The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.
In fact, if one considers the possible constants and laws that could have emerged, the odds against a universe that produced life like ours are immense.
I would like nuclear fusion to become a practical power source. It would provide an inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming.
If we want to travel into the future, we just need to go fast. Really fast. And I think the only way we're ever likely to do that is by going into space.
[On President Bush's plan to get to Mars in 10 years] Stupid. Robots would do a better job and be much cheaper because you don't have to bring them back.
What I meant by 'we would know the mind of God' is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God. Which there isn't. I'm an atheist.
Time and space are finite in extent, but they don't have any boundary or edge. They would be like the surface of the earth, but with two more dimensions.
I can't say that my disability has helped my work, but it has allowed me to concentrate on research without having to lecture or sit on boring committees.
One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist.....Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist
It is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God.
So next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.
It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.
In Britain, like most of the developed world, stem-cell research is regarded as a great opportunity. America will be left behind if it doesn't change policy.
We are only the temporary custodians of the particles which we are made of. They will go on to lead a future existence in the enormous universe that made them
I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex. [Hawking adopted this statement from a remark made to him by his former post-doc, Nathan Myhrvold.]
If human life were long enough to find the ultimate theory, everything would have been solved by previous generations. Nothing would be left to be discovered.
The life we have on Earth must have spontaneously generated itself. It must therefore be possible for life to generate spontaneously elsewhere in the universe.
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.