Stephen Hawking

There are no black holes in the sense of a region of spacetime from which nothing can escape. Instead, there are apparent horizons which persist for a time and then vanish.

I believe that 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.

I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these 'how' and 'why' questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.

The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect an underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.

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

We are all connected to the cosmos, and it is a wonderful thing.

The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.

I am an optimist, but I am a realist who understands that science is a slow process.

There are no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope.

The ultimate goal of science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe.

We are very, very small, but we are profoundly significant.

Cosmology is the study of the large scale structure of the universe, and how it has evolved over time.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity.

So next time someone complains that you made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.

I have often been asked: What do you think about God? I have said that we cannot know for sure whether God exists or not. But I don't believe in a personal God.

The fact that we humans, who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles, have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph.

The human race is a single, genetic family. When a child is born, it is born into the human race, not into some particular tribe or nation. The human race is one. And we are all brothers and sisters.

I believe that the simplest explanation is that there is no God who created the universe and directed our fate. This leads me to a profound realization: there is probably no heaven and afterlife either. I think belief in an afterlife is just wishful thinking.

The universe doesn't care about your feelings.