Stephen Hawking

“Computers double their performance every month.”

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

“The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C - not much good for defrosting the pizza, let alone cooking it.”

“I think we have a good chance of surviving long enough to colonize the solar system.”

“There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

“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.”

“Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.”

“It's time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.”

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

“I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I'm as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.”

“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.”

“People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.”

“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.”

“Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.”

“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.”

“The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.”

“Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.”