Stephen Hawking's best quotes (with sources)
The top 3 according to 74 votes from people: People who boast about their IQ are losers. · 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. · Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.. (Updated Jul 4, 2021.)
Monkeys on a minor planet who can understand the Universe, people who boast about their IQ and the imperfection without which we would not exist: Stephen Hawking's most quoted lines, each with its interview, lecture or book — and without the misattributed ones.
Top 14
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1
People who boast about their IQ are losers.
Interview in The New York Times (2004).
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2
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.
Interview in Der Spiegel (1988).
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3
Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
Interview in The New York Times (2004).
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4
My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.
Interview in The New York Times (2004).
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5
So next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (2010).
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6
Equations are just the boring part of mathematics. I attempt to see things in terms of geometry.
Quoted in Stephen Hawking: A Biography, by Kristine Larsen (2005).
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7
To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.
Foreword to The Physics of Star Trek, by Lawrence Krauss.
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8
It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly.
Interview in The Guardian (2005).
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9
I am discounting reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?
TED talk "Asking Big Questions about the Universe" (2008).
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10
With current technology interstellar travel is utterly impractical. Alpha Centauri can never become a holiday destination.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018).
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11
…the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order…
A Brief History of Time (1988).
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12
Einstein was confused, not the quantum theory.
Lecture in Amsterdam (1997).
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13
It's tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction, but this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake ever.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018).
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14
The zero-G part was wonderful and the higher-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!
After his zero-gravity flight (BBC News, 2007).
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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