“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up.”
DGD was asking about Stephen Hawking today and I could only remember the first part of the quote which she liked very much. I must tell her the whole quote - it is a lesson for life.
dj it’s by Australian journalist/artist Mitchell Toy and is circulating the internet. I think you can read it in several different ways-a return to our ultimate origins, an afterlife, the next big question to be answered.
He was one of my heroes. I was in awe of his amazing brain and yet he was a man of the people too. He was one of the few that I shed genuine tears over when I heard of his death. Like many others on here I felt he was immortal but in a way he is. He contributed so much to our understanding of the universe and was so inspirational. RIP to a real superstar!
He was an amazing man and it is sad that a powerful voice for the NHS and for the Palestinians has been lost. I was sorry to hear that he has died but he achieved so much, lived his life to the full and appeared to enjoy it so he made the most of those decades he never expected to see.
There have been hundreds if not thousands of tributes to him on Twitter today, and I've been struck by in how many of the photographs from across his lifetime ... he is smiling .
What can I add to the wonderful tributes above. Stephen was a brilliant man, Such an inspiration with his severe disabilities. The world owes him a lot for his wisdom and humour. RIP
My brother died 3 years ago with MND after battling the disease for 18 years. He was also a Cambridge academic and when Stephen Hawking heard, through the Cambridge grapevine, about him, he invited my brother to tea in his college. Although a colossal intellect, he was a truly good human being. He gave my brother hope and inspired him to live life to the full in spite of this horrendous disease. The world is a poorer place for his passing. I feel very sad today.
I heard him once saying that his illness and disability was infinitesimal when compared the universe; what a truly inspirational man, and that philosophy must have been the reason for his having the lifespan that he did.
Yes, indeed. I lost my husband to MND seven years ago and whenever this ghastly illness is mentioned I feel tearful. I knew that I would be upset at Prof Hawking's death but didn't realise just how much sadness I'd feel. He was a great inspiration. If I understand it he's leaving his body to medical science so that more about the illness can be learned. I would be thrilled to bits if a cure could be found in my lifetime.
So sad. A brain the size of a planet. Hawking is an shining example of the sadness no Nobel prizes are available for Mathematics, etc...
Not enough has been mentioned about his impish sense of humour! Just because his face didn't move, didn't mean that he didn't love playing tricks [verbal usually] on his audiences...