Stephen Hawking Quotes - Page 4

To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.

Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing.

The idea of 10 dimensions might sound exciting, but they would cause real problems if you forget where you parked your car.

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.

The universe and the Laws of Physics seem to have been specifically designed for us. If any one of about 40 physical qualities had more than slightly different values, life as we know it could not exist: Either atoms would not be stable, or they wouldn't combine into molecules, or the stars wouldn't form heavier elements, or the universe would collapse before life could develop, and so on...

It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.

The universe doesn't allow perfection.

Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.

What was God doing before the divine creation?

[I think the most about] women. They are a complete mystery.

I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.

Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like this.

When I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my pistol.

While there's life, there is hope.

There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. However bad life may seem, there is always hope.

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.

Nothing cannot exist forever.

Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest.

Science can explain the universe without the need for a Creator.

Do you believe in first love - or should I pass by again?

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.

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?

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.

Without imperfection, you or I would not exist.

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.