Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge at the time of his death. Profoundly inspirational Stephen Hawking quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.
Famous Stephen Hawking Quotes
A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls… saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality? – Stephen Hawking
Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out. – 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
So long as the Universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the Universe is really completely self-contained, it would have neither beginning or end, it would simply be. What place then for a creator? – 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
One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away. – Stephen Hawking
Not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can’t be seen. – Stephen Hawking
Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. – Stephen Hawking
If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make reality the basis of our philosophy? But we cannot distinguish what is real about the universe without a theory. It makes no sense to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what reality is independent of a theory. – Stephen Hawking
People who boast about their I.Q. are losers. – Stephen Hawking
Without imperfection, you or I would not exist. – Stephen Hawking
Once I wept for I had no shoes. Then I met a man with no feet, so I took his shoes. I mean, it wasn’t as if he was going to need them. – Stephen Hawking
The universe does not behave according to our pre-conceived ideas. It continues to surprise us. – Stephen Hawking
I have experimental evidence that time travel is not possible. – Stephen Hawking
Nothing cannot exist forever. – Stephen Hawking
The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities. – Stephen Hawking
Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool. – Stephen Hawking
One can see from space how the human race has changed the Earth. Nearly all of the available land has been cleared of forest and is now used for agriculture or urban development. The polar icecaps are shrinking and the desert areas are increasing. At night, the Earth is no longer dark, but large areas are lit up. All of this is evidence that human exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical limit. But human demands and expectations are ever-increasing. We cannot continue to pollute the atmosphere, poison the ocean and exhaust the land. There isn’t any more available. – Stephen Hawking
God abhors a naked singularity. – Stephen Hawking
It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years. – Stephen Hawking
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. – Stephen Hawking
Scientific discovery may not be better than sex, but the satisfaction lasts longer. – Stephen Hawking
It should soon be possible dramatically to increase the intelligence and life span of a few individuals. They and their offspring could become a master race. Evolution pays no regard to social justice. It was not fair on the Neanderthals they were replaced by modern humans. – Stephen Hawking
Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science. – Stephen Hawking
The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and the future. – Stephen Hawking
It is generally recognised that women are better than men at languages, personal relations and multi-tasking, but less good at map-reading and spatial awareness. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that women might be less good at mathematics and physics. – Stephen Hawking
The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C – not much good for defrosting the pizza, let alone cooking it. – Stephen Hawking
I believe things cannot make themselves impossible. – Stephen Hawking
The Simpsons is the best thing on American television. – Stephen Hawking
What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn’t prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary. – Stephen Hawking
Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. – Stephen Hawking
Some individuals are better able than others to draw the right conclusions about the world about them and act accordingly. These individuals will be more likely to survive and reproduce so their pattern of behaviour and thought will become dominant – Stephen Hawking
Not to leave planet Earth would be like castaways on a desert island not trying to escape…Sending humans to other planets … will shape the future of the human race in ways we don’t yet understand, and may determine whether we have any future at all. – Stephen Hawking
It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value. – Stephen Hawking
Thirty years ago I was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and given two and a half years to live. I have always wondered how they could be so precise about the half. – Stephen Hawking
In his eyes shone the reflection of the most beautiful planet in the Universe—a planet that is not too hot and not too cold; that has liquid water on the surface and where the gravity is just right for human beings and the atmosphere is perfect for them to breathe; where there are mountains and deserts and oceans and islands and forests and trees and birds and plants and animals and insects and people—lots and lots of people. Where there is life. Some of it, possibly, intelligent. – Stephen Hawking
I think my dad [ Stephen Hawking] would have been pleased if I had turned out a scientist because he truly believes that is the most interesting career open to anyone. But he also believes that you have to follow your own path in life and so he certainly wasn’t going to push me toward theoretical physics when it didn’t look like I was going in that direction naturally. – Stephen Hawking
Jesus loves you, but everyone else thinks you’re an ass. – Stephen Hawking
There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. However bad life may seem, there is always hope. – Stephen Hawking
Why are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. – Stephen Hawking
However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. – Stephen Hawking
If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future? – Stephen Hawking
Love the neighbor. But don’t get caught. – Stephen Hawking
Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. – Stephen Hawking
What I have learned from life is to make the most of what you have got. – Stephen Hawking
I think the human race doesn’t have a future if we don’t go into space. We need to expand our horizons beyond planet Earth if we are to have a long-term future. We cannot remain looking inward at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet. We need to look outward to the wider universe. – Stephen Hawking
Evolution has ensured that our brains just aren’t equipped to visualise 11 dimensions directly. However, from a purely mathematical point of view it’s just as easy to think in 11 dimensions, as it is to think in three or four. – Stephen Hawking
When I hear of Schrödinger’s cat, I reach for my pistol. – Stephen Hawking
I’m really easy to get along with once you see it my way. – Stephen Hawking
A picture is worth a thousand words…and uses up a thousand times the memory. – 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
A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: it must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations. – Stephen Hawking
Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest. – Stephen Hawking
Although quantum mechanics has been around for nearly 70 years, it is still not generally understood or appreciated, even by those that use it to do calculations. – 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
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. – Stephen Hawking
The rate of progress is so rapid that what one learns at school or university is always a bit out of date. Only a few people can keep up with the rapidly advancing frontier of knowledge, and they have to devote their whole time to it and specialize in a small area. The rest of the population has little idea of the advances that are being made or the excitement they are generating. – Stephen Hawking
Think of our DNA. In the last million years, our DNA hasn’t changed at all. It’s really much the same as it was in the jungle, a million, two millions years ago. But in the last 200 years, our destructive capacities have increased many, many millions of times over. Why don’t we see intelligent signals from outer space? Because in all likelihood, once the civilization reaches the point our civilization has reached, it destroys itself. – Stephen Hawking
Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge. – Stephen Hawking
We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone royalties for their existence. – Stephen Hawking
If at first you don’t succeed, try management. – Stephen Hawking
I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonizing other planets. – Stephen Hawking
It is all right to make mistakes; nothing is perfect because with perfection, we would not exist. – Stephen Hawking
Why do we remember the past, but not the future? – Stephen Hawking
Disability can be no handicap. – Stephen Hawking
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 – Stephen Hawking
It’s clearly possible for a something to acquire higher intelligence than its ancestors: we evolved to be smarter than our ape-like ancestors, and Einstein was smarter than his parents. – Stephen Hawking
No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before. – Stephen Hawking
I don’t fear God- I fear His believers. – Stephen Hawking
Theology is unnecessary. – Stephen Hawking
Time travel may be possible, but it is not practical. – Stephen Hawking
We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain. – Stephen Hawking
Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space. – 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
No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius. – Stephen Hawking
I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex. – Stephen Hawking
People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining. – 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
One can imagine that God created the universe at literally any time in the past. On the other hand, if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be a beginning. One could imagine that God created the universe at the instant of the big bang, or even afterwards in just such a way as to make it look as though there had been a big bang, but it would be meaningless to suppose that it was created before the big bang. An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job! – Stephen Hawking
One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer. – Stephen Hawking
The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can’t believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes. – Stephen Hawking
Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking. – Stephen Hawking
I am discounting the reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos? – Stephen Hawking
It is very important for young people keep their sense of wonder and keep asking why. – Stephen Hawking
Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge. – Stephen Hawking
The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people. – Stephen Hawking
We should seek the greatest value of our action. – 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 would rather be right than rigorous. – Stephen Hawking
What was God doing before the divine creation? – Stephen Hawking
It is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful. – Stephen Hawking
The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized. It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away. – Stephen Hawking
The initial configuration of the universe may have been chosen by God, or it may itself have been determined by the laws of science. In either case, it would seem that everything in the universe would then be determined by evolution according to the laws of science, so it is difficult to see how we can be masters of our fate. – Stephen Hawking
If the government is covering up knowledge of aliens, they are doing a better job of it than they do at anything else. – Stephen Hawking
Gravity is so strong that space is bent round onto itself, making it rather like the surface of the earth. If one keeps traveling in a certain direction on the surface of the earth, one never comes up against an impassable barrier or falls over the edge, but eventually comes back to where one started. – Stephen Hawking
Quiet people have the loudest minds. – Stephen Hawking
I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. – Stephen Hawking
If one is physically disabled, one cannot afford to be psychologically disabled as well. – Stephen Hawking
The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. – Stephen Hawking
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. – 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
There should be a better way to start a day than waking up every morning. – Stephen Hawking
Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn – Stephen Hawking
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. – Stephen Hawking
There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. – Stephen Hawking
I’m here to chew gum and kick some ass, and I’m all out of gum. – Stephen Hawking
The fact that no one understands you doesn’t mean you’re an artist. – Stephen Hawking
Success is a relative term. It brings so many relatives. – Stephen Hawking
Only time – whatever that may be – will tell. – Stephen Hawking
If you understand how the universe operates, you control it in a way. – Stephen Hawking
I’m not religious in the normal sense. 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. – Stephen Hawking
So remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and hold on to that childlike wonder about what makes the universe exist. – Stephen Hawking
Someone told me that each equation I included in my book would halve the sales. I did put in one equation, Einstein’s famous equation, E = MC squared. I hope that this will not scare off half of my potential readers. – Stephen Hawking
The idea that we are alone in the universe seems to me completely implausible and arrogant, considering the number of planets and stars that we know exist, it’s extremely unlikely that we are the only form of evolved life. – Stephen Hawking
Though we feel we can choose what we do, our understanding of the molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets. – Stephen Hawking
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. – Stephen Hawking
It is impossible to imagine a four-dimensional space. I personally find it hard enough to visualize a three-dimensional space! – 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
The idea of 10 dimensions might sound exciting, but they would cause real problems if you forget where you parked your car. – Stephen Hawking
In this way, Edwin Hubble worked out the distances to nine different galaxies. We now know that our galaxy is only one of some hundred thousand million that can be seen using modern telescopes, each galaxy itself containing some hundred thousand million stars. – Stephen Hawking
Because imaginary time behaves like another direction in space, histories in imaginary time can be closed surfaces, like the surface of the Earth, with no [existential] beginning or end. – Stephen Hawking
I may contradict myself, but at least I don’t contradict myself. – Stephen Hawking
We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet. – Stephen Hawking
