Quotes by Stephen Hawking

Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.

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?

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

I entered the health care debate in response to a statement in the United States press in summer 2009 which claimed the National Health Service in Great Britain would have killed me off, were I a British citizen. I felt compelled to make a statement to explain the error.

I believe in universal health care. And I am not afraid to say so.

I dont have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. Im happier now than before I developed the condition.

I dont have much positive to say about motor neurone disease. But it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I could still do.

It was Einsteins dream to discover the grand design of the universe, a single theory that explains everything. However, physicists in Einsteins day hadnt made enough progress in understanding the forces of nature for that to be a realistic goal.

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.

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.

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

God is the name people give to the reason we are here. But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.

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.

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.

The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.

“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 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.”

“Life would be tragic if it werent funny.”

“I regard the afterlife to be a fairy story for people that are afraid of the dark”

“The people who actually make the advances in theoretical physics dont think in these categories that the philosophers and the historians of science subsequently invent for them”