World-renowned physicist and pop culture icon Stephen Hawking not only had a brilliant scientific mind but also a way with words. Here are nine memorable quotes from Hawking, who died Wednesday at age 76:

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1. "Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."

– New York Times interview, 2004

2. "So next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist." 

– "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking," 2010

3. "People who boast about their IQ are losers."

– New York Times interview, 2004

4. "Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking."

– British Telecom ad, 1993

5. "Women. They are a complete mystery."

– New Scientist interview, 2012

6. "However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope."

– Hong Kong press conference, 2006

7. "I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road."

– "Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays," 1993

8. "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

– "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking," 2010

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

– "Stephen Hawking's Universe," 1985