Stephen Hawking on Uncertainty principle

“[T]he laws of physics need not break down at the origin of the universe. The state of the universe and its contents, like ourselves, are completely determined by the laws of physics, up to the limit set by the uncertainty principle. So much for free will.”

“Ultimately... one would hope to find a complete, consistent, unified theory that would include all... partial theories as approximations... "the unification of physics." Einstein spent most of his later years unsuccessfully searching... Einstein refused to believe in the reality of quantum mechanics, despite the important role he played in its development. Yet it seems that the uncertainty principle is a fundamental feature of the universe... A successful unified theory must... incorporate this principle.”

“In September 1973, while I was visiting Moscow, I discussed black holes with two leading Soviet experts, Yakov Zeldovich and Alexander Starobinsky. They convince me that, according to the uncertainty principle, rotating black holes should create and emit particles. I believed their arguments on physical grounds but did not like the mathematical way in which they calculated the emission. I therefore set about devising a better mathematical treatment... when I did the calculation I found to my surprise and annoyance, that even nonrotating black holes should create and emit particles at a steady rate. ...[What finally convinced me that the emission was real was that the spectrum of the emitted particles was exactly that which would be emitted by a hot body... at exactly... the correct rate to prevent violations of the second law.”