Quotes from Stephen Hawking

In his book 'The Grand Design', Hawking says : Given the existence of gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist... It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going.

“All of my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist.”

“Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.”

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

“We should seek the greatest value of our action.”

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

“It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.”

“One cannot really argue with a mathematical theorem.”

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