Stephen Hawking quotes: thoughtful content from the late physicist.
“Be brave, be curious, be determined, overcome the odds. It can be done.”
“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. However bad life may seem, there is always hope.”
“What is important is that we have the ability to create.”
“We should seek the greatest value of our action.”
“We are very, very small. But we are profoundly capable of very, very big things.”
“It matters if you just don’t give up.”
“It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else.”
“When the going gets tough, the tough take a coffee break.”
“One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer.”
“There is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap.”
“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.”
“The meaning in life is not out there but in between our ears. In many ways this makes us the lords of creation.”
“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there’s life, there’s hope.”
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
“God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.”
“Only time – whatever that may be – will tell.”
“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.”
“The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.”
“People who boast about their IQ are losers.”
“It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.”
“People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.”
“Quiet people have the loudest minds.”
“Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.”
“We are all now connected by the internet, like neurons in a giant brain.”
“The rate of progress is so rapid that what one learns at school or university is always a bit out of date.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.”
“For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. 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.”
“Most of the threats we face come from the progress we’ve made in science and technology. We are not going to stop making progress, or reverse it, so we must recognize the dangers and control them. I’m an optimist, and I believe we can.”
“Simplicity is a matter of taste.”
“I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street.”
“The victim should have the right to end his life, if he wants. But I think it would be a great mistake.”
“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”
“Among physicists, I’m respected – I hope.”
“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.”
“Obviously, because of my disability, I need assistance. But I have always tried to overcome the limitations of my condition and lead as full a life as possible. I have traveled the world, from the Antarctic to zero gravity.”
“I was never top of the class at school, but my classmates must have seen potential in me, because my nickname was Einstein.”
“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. It was a natural next step to want to know how the universe works.”
“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.”
“I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex.”
“Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.”
“Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.”
“I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.”
“Just because I do a lot of thinking doesn’t mean I don’t like parties and getting into trouble.”
“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus. One really appreciates everything one does have.”
“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”
“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you [from] doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit, as well as physically.”
“I have a full and satisfying life. My work and my family are very important to me.”
“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”
“Money is not everything. There’s Mastercard and Visa.”
“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.”
“Let us fight for every woman and every man to have the opportunity to live healthy, secure lives, full of opportunity and love. We are all time travelers, journeying together into the future. But let us work together to make that future a place we want to visit.”
“I think that when we die we return to dust. But there’s a sense in which we live on, in our influence, and in our genes that we pass on to our children. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.”
“It’s a crazy world out there. Be curious.”
R.I.P.
