Among physicists, I’m respected I hope.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

I went to Princeton specifically to study physics.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

If a projectile were deprived of the force of gravity, it would not be deflected toward the earth but would go off in a straight line into the heavens and do so with uniform motion, provided that the resistance of the air were removed.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

My reputation precedes me now.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

Please think of me like an endangered species and just observe me quietly from far away. If you try to talk to me or touch me casually, I may get intimidated and bite you. So please be careful.

I do not believe in God; his existence has been disproved by Science. But in the concentration camp, I learned to believe in men.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth.

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

With the exception of gravitation and radioactivity, all of the phenomena known to physicists and chemists in 1911 have their ultimate explanation in the laws of quantum electrodynamics.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

All great achievements require time.

As far as a glass ceiling, I feel that all you can do is give it your absolute best with whatever gifts the universe has given you. And if you make it in some way that other people can recognize, that’s fine. But even if you don’t quote-unquote make it, you’re fine if you’ve given it your whole heart and soul.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn’t that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

Cosmology is a rapidly advancing field.

We will explore the mysteries of science and harness the power of technology and innovation. We will realise the opportunities of the digital world. Our youth will learn more from – and with – each other.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

OK, so what’s the speed of dark?

I meet young people who know me and are familiar with my stuff. They know the package. They might have cherry-picked five or six key tunes. That’s how it seems to work. I sometimes wonder if they realise they are not getting the whole context.

The smaller the planets are, they are, other things being equal, of so much the greater density; for so the powers of gravity on their several surfaces come nearer to equality. They are likewise, other things being equal, of the greater density, as they are nearer to the sun.

My brother and I were both good at science, and we were both good at English literature. Either one of us could have gone either way.

A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.

I went to a lovely school, and I got an incredible education. And I actually think that my education is what really sets me apart, ‚cause I’m very smart.

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

At 57, to have a No. 1 album, I wasn’t expecting it.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

When I began in 1960, individuality wasn’t an accepted thing to look for; it was about species-specific behaviour. But animal behaviour is not hard science. There’s room for intuition.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

What is once well done is done forever.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?

It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week; it’s not essential for me to have big radio records.

It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.

I knew no one who’d ever been in the public eye.

I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.

My first popular book, ‚A Brief History of Time,‘ aroused a great deal of interest, but many found it difficult to understand.

With all the… success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust.

I used to think information was destroyed in black hole. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.