The Best Stephen Hawking quotes

Only time–whatever that may be–will tell. — Stephen Hawking

Time travel may be possible, but it is not practical. — Stephen Hawking

Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end. — Stephen Hawking

If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future? — Stephen Hawking

People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining. — Stephen Hawking

We each exist for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe. — Stephen Hawking

I have experimental evidence that time travel is not possible. — Stephen Hawking

Plagiarism saves time. — Stephen Hawking

Each exists for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe. — Stephen Hawking

I have so much that I want to do. I hate wasting time. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

I was not a good student. I did not spend much time at college; I was too busy enjoying myself. — Stephen Hawking

It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven’t done badly. People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining. — Stephen Hawking

Many people do not like the idea that time has a beginning, probably because it smacks of divine intervention. — Stephen Hawking

The last chapter discussed why we see time go forward: why disorder increases and why we remember the past but not the future. — Stephen Hawking

No boundary condition: The idea that the universe is finite but has no boundary (in imaginary time). — Stephen Hawking

Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG fourteen times gives you job security. — Stephen Hawking

Time travel was once considered scientific heresy, and I used to avoid talking about it for fear of being labelled a ‘crank.’ — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases. — Stephen Hawking

There are no black holes–in the sense of regimes from which light can’t escape to infinity. There are however apparent horizons which persist for a period of time. — Stephen Hawking

Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science. — Stephen Hawking

Real science can be far stranger than science fiction and much more satisfying. — Stephen Hawking

God may exist, but science can explain the universe without the need for a creator. — Stephen Hawking

Religion believes in miracles, but these aren’t compatible with science. — Stephen Hawking

Science does not deny religion, it just offers a simpler alternative. — Stephen Hawking

Science fiction can be exciting and very gripping, but it doesn’t tell us anything about the universe in which we live. — Stephen Hawking

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion. — Stephen Hawking

Science is not only a disciple of reason but also one of romance and passion. — Stephen Hawking

Science could predict that the universe must have had a beginning. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.’ [The Science of Second–Guessing (New York Times Magazine Interview, December 12, 2004)] — Stephen Hawking

The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can’t solve the equations, directly in the abstract. — Stephen Hawking

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics. — Stephen Hawking

Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. — Stephen Hawking

Science makes God unnecessary. — Stephen Hawking

I used to think information was destroyed in black hole. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science. — Stephen Hawking

Science will win because it works. — Stephen Hawking

Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest. — Stephen Hawking

The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired. — Stephen Hawking

Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. — Stephen Hawking

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. — Stephen Hawking

There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. — Stephen Hawking

While there’s life, there is hope. — Stephen Hawking

Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny. — Stephen Hawking

Every man should marry. After all, happiness is not the only thing in life. — Stephen Hawking

What I have learned from life is to make the most of what you have got. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

I think computer viruses should count as life. — Stephen Hawking

All my adult life people have been helping me. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. (…) However bad life may seem (…) While there’s life, there is hope. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

Maybe it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

We’ve created life in our own image. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up. — Stephen Hawking

If any one of about 40 physical qualities had more than slightly different values, life as we know it could not exist. — Stephen Hawking

I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their own life, and those that help them should be free from prosecution. — Stephen Hawking

Life on Earth is at the ever–increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of. — Stephen Hawking

When you are faced with the possibility of an early death, it makes you realize that there are lots of things you want to do before your life is over. — Stephen Hawking

The meaning in life is not out there but inbetween our ears. In many ways this makes us the lords of creation. — Stephen Hawking

We see the universe the way it is because we exist. — Stephen Hawking

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.–ALBERT EINSTEIN — Stephen Hawking

There is nothing bigger or older than the universe. — Stephen Hawking

The universe doesn’t allow perfection. — Stephen Hawking

The universe is not indifferent to our existence–it depends on it. — Stephen Hawking

I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing. — Stephen Hawking

Many people find the universe confusing–it’s not. — Stephen Hawking

A million million million million (1 with twenty–four zeros after it) miles, the size of the observable universe. — Stephen Hawking

It is said that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But the universe is the ultimate free lunch. — Stephen Hawking

We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe. — Stephen Hawking

Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? — Stephen Hawking

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all. — Stephen Hawking

It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love. — Stephen Hawking

What did God do before he created the universe? — Stephen Hawking

You cannot understand the glories of the universe without believing there is some Supreme Power behind it. — Stephen Hawking

If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way. — Stephen Hawking

The boundary condition of the universe is that it has no boundary. — Stephen Hawking

I have to speak through a computer… in my mind, I am free. Free to explore the universe and ask the big questions… — Stephen Hawking

The universe does not behave according to our pre–conceived ideas. It continues to surprise us. — Stephen Hawking

A lot of prizes have been awarded for showing the universe is not as simple as we might have thought. — Stephen Hawking

If I have questions about the universe on my mind when I go to bed, I can’t turn off. I dream equations all night. — Stephen Hawking

An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job! — Stephen Hawking

We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans? — Stephen Hawking

I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space. — Stephen Hawking

The human capacity for guilt is such that people can always find ways to blame themselves — Stephen Hawking

Although September 11 was horrible, it didn’t threaten the survival of the human race, like nuclear weapons do. — Stephen Hawking

The human race does not have a very good record of intelligent behavior. — Stephen Hawking

We explore because we are human and we want to know. I hope that Pluto will help us on that journey. — Stephen Hawking

The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. — Stephen Hawking

It [AI] would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded. — Stephen Hawking

The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. — Stephen Hawking

If we find the answer to that (why the universe exists), it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason. For then we would know the mind of God. — Stephen Hawking

In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years? — Stephen Hawking

In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind. — Stephen Hawking

If we ever do find a complete theory of the universe, it would be a great triumph of human reason but it wouldn’t leave much for us to do. We need an intellectual challenge. — Stephen Hawking

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. — Stephen Hawking

To confine our attention To terrestrial matters would be To limit the human spirit. — Stephen Hawking

We must develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between brain and computer, so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence rather than opposing it. — Stephen Hawking

One could imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out–inventing human researchers, out–manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. — Stephen Hawking

The progress of the human race in understanding the universe has established a small corner of order in an increasingly disordered universe. — Stephen Hawking

Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. — Stephen Hawking

One could define God as the embodiment of the laws of nature. — Stephen Hawking

The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and the future. — Stephen Hawking

The lesson of the book is that the universe is governed by the laws of science. — Stephen Hawking

There are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end ofthe search for the ultimate laws of nature. — Stephen Hawking

I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science. It has no beginning and no end. — Stephen Hawking

One does not have to appeal to God to set the initial conditions for the creation of the universe, but if one does He would have to act through the laws of physics. — Stephen Hawking

We could call order by the name of God, but it would be an impersonal God. There’s not much personal about the laws of physics. — Stephen Hawking

In effect, we have redefined the task of science to be the discovery of laws that will enable us to predict events up to the limits set by the uncertainty principle. — Stephen Hawking

It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion. — Stephen Hawking

The most important point: that the universe is governed by a set of rational laws that we can discover and understand. — Stephen Hawking