While there’s life, there is hope. - Stephen Hawking

the most important point: that the universe is governed by a set of rational laws that we can discover and understand.

I will never be as brave as him — I’m not by nature a particularly courageous person — but he showed me that I could try. And that trying might turn out to be the most important part of courage.

I have led an extraordinary life on this planet, while at the same time travelling across the universe by using my mind and the laws of physics. I have been to the furthest reaches of our galaxy, travelled into a black hole and gone back to the beginning of time. On Earth, I have experienced highs and lows, turbulence and peace, success and suffering. I have been rich and poor, I have been able-bodied and disabled. I have been praised and criticised, but never ignored. I have been enormously privileged, through my work, in being able to contribute to our understanding of the universe. But it would be an empty universe indeed if it were not for the people I love, and who love me. Without them, the wonder of it all would be lost on me.