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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“I am discounting reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

As quoted in a TED talk, " Asking Big Questions about the Universe http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/242"

“Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales. I therefore resolved not to have any equations at all. In the end, however, I did put in one equation, Einstein's famous equation, E = mc^2. I hope that this will not scare off half of my potential readers.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time (1988)

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Sometimes attributed to Hawking without a source, but originally from historian Daniel J. Boorstin. It appears in different forms in The Discoverers (1983), Cleopatra's Nose (1995), and introduction to The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1995)
Misattributed

“We shouldn't be surprised that conditions in the universe are suitable for life, but this is not evidence that the universe was designed to allow for life. 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 (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Quoted in "Leaping the Abyss" (April 2002) by Gregory Benford, in Reason Magazine http://reason.com/archives/2002/04/01/leaping-the-abyss/4

“To show this diagram properly, I would really need a four dimensional screen. However, because of government cuts, we could manage to provide only a two dimensional screen.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

The Beginning of Time (1996)

“Einstein is the only figure in the physical sciences with a stature that can be compared with Newton. Newton is reported to have said "If I have seen further than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants." This remark is even more true of Einstein who stood on the shoulders of Newton. Both Newton and Einstein put forward a theory of mechanics and a theory of gravity but Einstein was able to base General Relativity on the mathematical theory of curved spaces that had been constructed by Riemann while Newton had to develop his own mathematical machinery. It is therefore appropriate to acclaim Newton as the greatest figure in mathematical physics and the Principia is his greatest achievement.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

"Newton's Principia" in 300 Years of Gravitation. (1987) by S. W. Hawking and W. Israel, p. 4

“The universe would have expanded in a smooth way from a single point. As it expanded, it would have borrowed energy from the gravitational field, to create matter. As any economist could have predicted, the result of all that borrowing, was inflation. The universe expanded and borrowed at an ever-increasing rate. Fortunately, the debt of gravitational energy will not have to be repaid until the end of the universe.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

The Beginning of Time (1996)

“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 (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Interview with Ken Campbell on Reality on the Rocks: Beyond Our Ken (1995) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3aadgf0GH8

“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. Where there's life, there's hope.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

“Women. They are a complete mystery.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Response when asked what he thinks about most during the day, "Stephen Hawking at 70: Exclusive interview" http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328460.500-stephen-hawking-at-70-exclusive-interview.html in New Scientist (4 January 2012)

“Today will still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Humanity's deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time

“Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

"The Quantum State of the Universe", Nuclear Physics (1984) 
Context: Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted. That may be so, but it could also have made it evolve in a completely arbitrary and random manner. Yet all the evidence is that it evolves in a regular way according to certain laws. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the boundary conditions.

“What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.”

Stephen Hawking book A Briefer History of Time

Source: A Briefer History of Time

“We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is?”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time

“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 book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time (1988), Ch. 8

“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 (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

“God abhors a naked singularity.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time

“thus, in a sense, we are all doomed. even if we stay away from black holes”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

“Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time (1988), Ch. 9
Context: Just like a computer, we must remember things in the order in which entropy increases. This makes the second law of thermodynamics almost trivial. Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases. You can’t have a safer bet than that!

“Government works best under the glare of public scrutiny. Absent such scrutiny, abuses occur.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author