Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales. Stephen Hawking More Quotes by Stephen Hawking More Quotes From Stephen Hawking I'm really easy to get along with once you see it my way. Stephen Hawking my-wayeasyway [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. Stephen Hawking intelligentstupidscience The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological-technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science. Clearly, no scientist better represents those advances than Albert Einstein: TIME's Person of the Century. Stephen Hawking technologypastyears Science is not only a disciple of reason but, also, one of romance and passion. Stephen Hawking romancepassionreason 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. Stephen Hawking mightbeautifulgiving 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. Stephen Hawking blackplayscience I’m not religious in the normal sense. I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws. Stephen Hawking religiouslawbelieve It is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Stephen Hawking reasonableasksanswers The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and the future. Stephen Hawking lawtimepast Because imaginary time behaves like another direction in space, histories in imaginary time can be closed surfaces, like the surface of the Earth, with no [existential] beginning or end. Stephen Hawking existentialspaceearth 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. Stephen Hawking crazyspacephilosophy A model is a good model if first it interprets a wide range of observations in terms of a simple and elegant model, and second if the model makes definite predictions that can be tested, and possibly falsified, by observation. Stephen Hawking predictionssimplefirsts Love the neighbor. But don't get caught. Stephen Hawking caughtneighbor I think [contacting an alien civilization] would be a disaster. The extraterrestrials would probably be far in advance of us. The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy, and they were the same species. I think we should keep our heads low. Stephen Hawking racecivilizationthinking I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. 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. Stephen Hawking suicidedarkdeath [I think the most about] women. They are a complete mystery. Stephen Hawking mysterythinking One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer. Stephen Hawking engineeringsciencelong Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Stephen Hawking connectionssimplebeautiful The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities. Stephen Hawking future-possibilitiespossibilitypast Thirty years ago I was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and given two and a half years to live. I have always wondered how they could be so precise about the half. Stephen Hawking halftwoyears