Quotes from Stephen Hawking

Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end.

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

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

My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a b

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.

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.

Science is not only a disciple of reason but, also, one of romance and passion.

I have found far greater enthusiasm for science in America than here in Britain. There is more enthusiasm for everything in America.

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.

We each exist for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe

Or in other words, why does disorder increase in the same direction of time as that in which the universe expands?

In real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to space-time and at which the laws of science break down.

My first popular book, 'A Brief History of Time,' aroused a great deal of interest, but many found it difficult to understand.

So Einstein was wrong when he said, God does not play dice. Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen.

We have finally found something that doesn't have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in. For me this means that there is no possibility of a creator, because there is no time for a creator to have existed in.

Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have not been content to see events as unconnected and inexplicable. They have craved an understanding of the underlying order in the world. Today we 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.

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

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.

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?

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

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet

It matters if you just don't give up.

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.

If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans.