Recall famous phrases from British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday (14) at age 76:
"We're just an advanced line of monkeys on a smaller planet than a very common star. But we can understand the universe. This makes us very special, "he told the German magazine Der Spiegel in 1988.
My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. The rest was a gift, "he told the New York Times in December 2004.
"I believe that the full development of artificial intelligence could mean the end of the human race," he told the BBC in 2014.
- I live with the prospect of an early death 49 years ago. I'm not afraid to die, but I'm not in a hurry either, "he told the British newspaper The Guardian in May 2011.
"No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius," he told Time magazine in September 1993.
"People who boast about their IQ are losers," he told the New York Times in December 2004.
"If the extraterrestrials ever visit us, I think the result will be similar to when Christopher Columbus landed in America, which is not a positive result for the natives," he said in the documentary "Into the Universe," The Discovery Channel.
"The crux of my celebrity is that I can not go anywhere without being recognized. Do not just put on sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away, "he quipped at an Israeli TV station in 2006.
To find the answer to this would be the great triumph of human reason, because then we would know the mind of God - said about the reason for the existence of the universe in his book A Brief History of Time in 1988.
There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works, "he told ABC television in June 2010.