Stephen Hawking — "Of course it is possible that UFO's really do contain aliens as many people beli…"
Of course it is possible that UFO's really do contain aliens as many people believe, and the government is hushing it up.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Stephen Hawking
"So next time someone complains that you made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist."
"I have noticed that even people who claim that everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road."
"One day, I hope to have a conversation with an alien."
"One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist....Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist."
"We are all different, but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it's human nature that we adapt and survive."
About Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
British theoretical physicist whose Hawking radiation work and A Brief History of Time (1988) brought black-hole physics to a mass audience while he lived with ALS for 55 years. Closely associated with Roger Penrose (his collaborator on singularity theorems) and Carl Sagan (fellow popularizer who wrote Brief History's foreword). For an intellectual contrast, see William Lane Craig, American philosopher of religion — Craig's Kalam cosmological argument depends on the Big Bang requiring a divine first cause; Hawking's no-boundary proposal was specifically designed to remove the moment that would require one — the cleanest cosmology-vs-natural-theology contrast in modern thought.
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
The statement acknowledges, without full endorsement, the logical possibility that UFOs carry extraterrestrial beings and that governments conceal this truth. It validates public suspicion of official secrecy while remaining scientifically cautious — distinguishing between what is possible and what is proven. Hawking neither dismisses the idea as absurd nor confirms it, treating it as a live hypothesis deserving honest acknowledgment rather than reflexive ridicule.
Relevance to Stephen Hawking
Hawking spent his career calculating the statistical likelihood of intelligent extraterrestrial life, famously warning humanity against contact with advanced civilizations. His work on the scale and age of the universe convinced him life almost certainly exists elsewhere. This quote reflects his willingness to engage alien questions seriously, a sharp contrast to mainstream scientific culture that historically dismissed UFO discourse as fringe pseudoscience unworthy of rigorous attention.
The era
Hawking made this remark amid post-Cold War UFO culture peaking in the 1990s–2000s, fueled by Roswell anniversaries, the X-Files phenomenon, and growing distrust of government following Vietnam and Watergate. Declassified documents hinting at official UFO investigations fed widespread belief in cover-ups. Simultaneously, SETI research was gaining scientific legitimacy, making the question of extraterrestrial life newly respectable in academic and public discourse.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].