We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering. Carl Sagan
There are billions of stars therefore trillions of planets. Carl Sagan
It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us. Carl Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience
The process of non-thinking called faith. I’m a scientist and I believe there is a profound contradiction between Science and religious belief. There is no well demonstrated reason to believe in God. And I think the idea of a divine creator belittles the elegant reality of the universe. (God & Religion & Faith & Science & Belief & Universe) Professor Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The God Delusion
It would be very surprising if this is the only planet in the entire universe where there’s life. And I think it would also be surprising if this is the only planet in the universe where there is intelligent life ... There could well be alien beings elsewhere in the universe that are so far ahead of us we would treat them as gods. Richard Dawkins, Minnesota Radio 2008
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference. Richard Dawkins
I mean I think the closest is the idea that the fundamental constants of the universe are too good to be true. That does to me seem to need some kind of explanation, if it’s true ... It certainly doesn’t suggest to me in any way a creative intelligence because you’re still left with the problem of explaining where that come from. Richard Dawkins, The Four Horsemen: Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens
Religions do make claims about the universe – the same kinds of claims that scientists make, except they’re usually false. Richard Dawkins
Growing up in the universe partly means evolving from simple to complicated, inefficient to efficient, brainless to brainy. But it also means growing out of parochial and superstitious views of the universe. Richard Dawkins, lecture 1: Waking Up in the Universe 1991
Queerer than we can suppose: what is it that makes us capable of supposing anything? Does this tell us anything about what we can suppose? Are there things about the universe that will be for ever beyond our grasp, but not beyond the grasp of some superior intelligence? Are there things about the universe that are in principle ungraspable by any mind however superior? Richard Dawkins 2007
In very different ways, the possibility that the universe is teeming with life, and the opposite possibility that we are totally alone, are equally exciting. Either way, the urge to know more about the universe seems to me irresistible, and I cannot imagine that anybody of truly poetic sensibility could disagree. Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved literally out of nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice. Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor’s Tale
Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. It is not necessary to invoke God. Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design, 2010
One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away. Stephen Hawking
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. Stephen Hawking
I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No-one created the universe and no-one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful. Stephen Hawking
Each equation … in the book would halve the sales. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time 1988
In effect, we have redefined the task of science to be the discovery of laws that will enable us to predict events up to the limits set by the uncertainty principle. ibid.
What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? … Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? ibid.
If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God. ibid.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Did the universe have a beginning? And if so, what happened before then? Where did the Universe come from? And where is it going? Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, documentary 1991
An expanding universe does not preclude a creator but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job. ibid.
The universe has two possible destinies: it may continue to expand for ever, or it may re-collapse and come to an end at the Big Crunch. It would rather be like the Big Bang but in reverse. ibid.
Where do we come from? How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? Where are we going? Stephen Hawking’s Universe: Seeing is Believing, 1997
That galaxies were racing apart meant one thing: the universe is expanding ... When George Lemaitre heard of Hubble’s claim he knew this was the truth Lemaitre had been waiting for. Stephen Hawking's Universe: In the Beginning
[Vera] Rubin’s findings suggested that the destiny of galaxies is governed by a vast and inscrutable network. Every galaxy is enveloped in dark matter, invisibly locking all the stars in its embrace with the gravity it exerts. The black emptiness of space it seems isn’t so empty after all. 99% of the universe could well be made up of dark matter. A sprawling cosmic web. Stephen Hawking’s Universe: On the Dark Side
Dark matter determines that fate of the universe. ibid.
The neutrino: this is produced in atomic bomb explosions, so it would also have been produced in the Big Bang explosion. If it had a tiny mass of its own, it could be the dark matter. ibid.
There are two possibilities: if there is only a fairly small amount of dark matter, the universe will continue to expand for ever, getting colder and colder, and more and more empty; on the other hand, if there’s a lot of dark matter, gravity will slow down the expansion of the universe, and stop it eventually. Then the universe will begin to contract and will end up in the Big Crunch like the Big Bang in reverse. ibid.
To work out where the universe came from all we need to do is to stop Time and make it run in reverse. Rewind far enough and everything gets closer together. A lot closer together. All the galaxies, in fact every single thing, converges to a single point – the start of everything 13.7 billion years ago ... A very long time ago, the universe simply burst into existence – an event called the Big Bang. Stephen Hawking’s Universe: Into the Universe: The Story of Everything
The universe simply inflated into existence, unfolding, unfurling, getting bigger and cooler with every passing moment. ibid.
If the universe continues to expand for ever, everything will burn out and decay. The amount of matter we observe in the stars and gas clouds is only about 10% of what is required to stop the expansion of the universe and cause it to collapse again. However, there might be other dark matter that we can’t see which will still affect the expansion of the universe. Stephen Hawking
My goal is simple: it is a complete understanding of the universe. Stephen Hawking
Hawking was going to have to unify the two great but very different theories of physics – Einstein’s theory of relativity is the theory of the very large ... Quantum physics is the theory of the very small ... Hawking would have to force the two together. Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe, Channel 4 2008
Penrose had shown the bits of the universe could be sucked into a singularity, a tiny plughole at the centre of a black hole. Hawking took Penrose’s equations and reversed them, like running a film backwards. Where Penrose showed the universe disappearing into a black hole, Hawkins showed it came from one. ibid.
The whole universe is expanding in all directions, getting bigger and bigger like a balloon inflated. Stephen Hawking’s Universe: Into the Universe: The Story of Everything, Discovery 2010
Why is the universe the way it is? Why does it follow rules and laws? Why is there order instead of chaos? Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design: The Key to the Cosmos, Discovery 2012
Newton realised there was a force at work deep within the fabric of the universe that makes all objects attract each other. ibid.
James Clark Maxwell, a Victorian scientist who was fascinated by light. ibid.