Quotes from Stephen Hawking

Someone once said that scientists and prostitutes get paid for doing what they enjoy.

The low esteem in which science and scientists are held is having serious consequences. We live in a society that is increasingly governed by science and technology, yet fewer and fewer young people want to go into science.

In 2010, computerised trading systems created the stock-market Flash Crash; what would a computer-triggered crash look like in the defence arena?

We got through all of Genesis and part of Exodus before I left. One of the main things I was taught from this was not to begin a sentence with And . I pointed out that most sentences in the Bible began with And , but I was told that English had changed since the time of King James. In that case, I argued, why make us read the Bible? But it was in vain. Robert Graves was very keen on the symbolism and mysticism in the Bible at that time [Childhood].

We are all time travelers, journeying together into the future. But let us work together to make that future a place we want to visit.

If information is lost in macroscopic black holes it should also be lost in processes in which microscopic, virtual black holes appear because of quantum fluctuations of the metric. One could imagine that particles and information could fall into these holes and get lost. Maybe that is where all those odd socks went.

I was never top of the class at school, but my classmates must have seen potential in me, because my nickname was 'Einstein.'

Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales.

Love the neighbor. But don't get caught.

With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code.

A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls... saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?

I can't say that my disability has helped my work, but it has allowed me to concentrate on research without having to lecture or sit on boring committees.