World renowned scientist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.
Hawking died at his home in Cambridge. His family released a statement in the early hours of Wednesday morning confirming the physicist's death.
“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today," Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said in a statement. "He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.
“He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him for ever.”
Here are a few quotes by Hawking that exhibit his brilliance.
1. "In the long run the human race should not have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. I just hope we can avoid dropping the basket until then."
2. "I accept that there are some things I can't do. But they are mostly things I don't particularly want to do anyway. I seem to manage to do anything that I really want."
3. "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
4. "I fit the part of a disabled genius. At least, I'm disabled - even though I'm not a genius like Einstein. ... The public wants heroes. They made Einstein a hero, and now they're making me a hero, though with much less justification."
5. "Physics was always the most boring subject at school because it was so easy and obvious. Chemistry was much more fun because unexpected things, such as explosions, kept happening. But physics and astronomy offered the hope of understanding where we came from and why we are here. I wanted to fathom the depths of the Universe."