Quote collection
421 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"All of my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist."
"The boundary condition of the universe is that it has no boundary."
"Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."
"There is a very real danger that we will kill everything on this planet now that we have the technological power to do so."
"[On President Bush's plan to get to Mars in 10 years] Stupid. Robots would do a better job and be much cheaper because you don't have to bring them back."
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries."
"People think I'm a Simpsons character."
"Hang in there, retirement is only thirty years away!"
"All that my work has shown is that you don't have to say that the way the universe began was the personal whim of God."
"Chaos, when left alone, tends to multiply."
"Children in backseats cause accidents. Accidents in backseats cause children."
"Don't be disabled in spirit as well as physically."
"I put a lot of effort into writing 'A Briefer History' at a time when I was critically ill with pneumonia because I think that it's important for scientists to explain their work, particularly in cosmology. This now answers many questions once asked of religion."
"In fact, if one considers the possible constants and laws that could have emerged, the odds against a universe that produced life like ours are immense."
"I want my books sold on airport bookstalls."
"But a machine that was powerful enough to accelerate particles to the grand unification energy would have to be as big as the Solar System - and would be unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate."
"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."
"Observations indicate that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It will expand forever, getting emptier and darker."
"thus, in a sense, we are all doomed. even if we stay away from black holes"
"Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill."