Stephen Hawking — "I believe that we are alone in the universe, or that we are the only intelligent…"
I believe that we are alone in the universe, or that we are the only intelligent life.
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
"The universe is a vast and empty place, but it's full of potential."
"We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet."
"I think that the universe is a beautiful and complex place, and I'm very lucky to be able to study it."
"We are very, very small, but we are also very, very smart."
"I believe that the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."
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: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
This expresses the possibility that humanity exists in cosmic solitude — either no other life has emerged anywhere in the universe, or no other species has developed true intelligence. It acknowledges the staggering scale of the cosmos while suggesting that conscious, reasoning minds may be an extraordinarily rare accident of nature. Far from trivial, this isolation would make every human thought, discovery, and civilization irreplaceable in the entire history of existence.
Relevance to Stephen Hawking
Hawking spent decades mapping the physics of black holes, Big Bang cosmology, and the origin of time itself, giving him rare authority to speculate on life's cosmic odds. Though he warned publicly that contacting aliens could be catastrophic — like Columbus meeting Native Americans — he also supported SETI funding. This tension between mathematical possibility and existential caution reflects his lifelong habit of following physics wherever it led, even toward uncomfortable conclusions.
The era
Hawking flourished during a period of explosive astronomical discovery — Kepler's 2009 telescope revealed thousands of exoplanets, including Earth-sized ones in habitable zones, intensifying debate over life's prevalence. SETI had been scanning radio signals since the 1960s with no confirmed contact, deepening the Fermi Paradox's grip on scientists. Meanwhile, concerns about civilizational self-destruction added weight to the question: if intelligent life exists elsewhere, why does it keep going silent?
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].