For many people with disabilities and those who care for them, daily life may not be easy. 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. Stephen Hawking, who died aged 76, combined a soaring intellect and a mischievous sense of humor that made him an icon of both academia and popular culture.

Here are some of his greatest quotes:

•  “For millions of years, mankind lived just like animals. Then something happened that 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.”

• “My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

• “I regard the brain as a computer that 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.”

• “I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

• “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.”

• “Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”

• “My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.”

• “People who boast about their IQ are losers.”

•  “I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”

• “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.”