quote · Legacy record
For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
Approximate author period: c. 1980 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Stephen Hawking
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1980 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1942 to 2018; Wikidata Q17714, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17714 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 61162; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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