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.
Stephen Hawking
I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.
However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.
We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.
Science is not only a disciple of reason but, also, one of romance and passion.
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.
Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.
My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with. Don't be disabled in spirit as well as physically.
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.
People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.
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.
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.
When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.
Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code.
Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.
Nothing cannot exist forever.
Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.
Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales.
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.
God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.
Stem cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson's and motor neuron disease from which I and many others suffer. The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection, because the embryos are going to die anyway.
If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, it would have recollapsed before it reached its present size. On the other hand, if it had been greater by a part in a million, the universe would have expanded too rapidly for stars and planets to form.
To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.
I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these 'how' and 'why' questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.
I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
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.
I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.
I would like nuclear fusion to become a practical power source. It would provide an inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming.
There could be shadow galaxies, shadow stars, and even shadow people.
I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.
People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.
We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.
While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I'm no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.
In my school, the brightest boys did math and physics, the less bright did physics and chemistry, and the least bright did biology. I wanted to do math and physics, but my father made me do chemistry because he thought there would be no jobs for mathematicians.
I think the brain is essentially a computer and consciousness is like a computer program. It will cease to run when the computer is turned off. Theoretically, it could be re-created on a neural network, but that would be very difficult, as it would require all one's memories.
I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.
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.
Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.
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?
Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.
We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.
There is no unique picture of reality.
It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.
Women. They are a complete mystery.
No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.
