Stephen Hawking

"[In the Universe it may be that] Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth."

"why are we here?where do we come from?traditionally,these are questionsfor philosophy,but philosophy is dead"

"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."

"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."

"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"

"I hope I have helped to raise the profile of science and to show that physics is not a mystery but can be understood by ordinary people."

"My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus."[The Science of Second-Guessing (New York Times Magazine Interview, December 12, 2004)]"

"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."

"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."

"[In the Universe it may be that] Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth."

"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."

"So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?"

"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."

"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."