Stephen Hawking dead: Remembering the physicist and LGBT campaigner’s most inspirational quotes
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They said he’d wouldn’t outlive his twenties, but world-renowned physicist and LGBT pioneer Stephen Hawking but he proved them wrong.
It was announced on March 14, 2018 that Stephen Hawking had passed away aged 76.
Alongside his ground-breaking scientific research, which applied new ideas to the theories of general relativity and black holes, Stephen Hawking was a passionate campaigner for LGBT equality.
He suffered from debilitating Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare form of motor neurone disease, throughout his life which gradually paralysed him – but all the while Hawking continued to research and teach at Cambridge University.
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As well as his scientific expertise Hawking had a keen sense of humour, and made numerous TV appearances. The scientist will live on through his bizarre, light-hearted guest spots on The Simpsons, Futurama and Big Bang Theory.
Here are some of the most inspirational things he said.
“We are all different, but we share the same human spirit”
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“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.”
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“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.”
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“It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.”
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“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”
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“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.”
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“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”
In 2012, Hawking called on the government to pardon gay war hero Alan Turing, who was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ in 1952 after having sex with a man.
Turing was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and died by suicide at 41.
In an open letter, Hawking called Turing “one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the modern era” and urged then-Prime Minister David Cameron to “forgive this British hero, to whom we owe so much as a nation, and whose pioneering contribution to computer sciences remains relevant even today”.
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A year later, the Queen granted Turing a posthumous pardon.
And last year, the British Government issued a pardon for men convicted of having sex with other men.
Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time is the most successful Sunday Times best-seller of all time, holding top spot for more than five years.
His work with black holes and relativity was revolutionary, and his life was turned into the Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne.
Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford in 1942 and died peacefully at his home in Cambridge.
