Women. They are a complete mystery.

The words of Stephen Hawking — “Women. They are a complete mystery.” — are spoken with humility from a man who unlocked many secrets of the cosmos, yet confessed his awe before the enigma of human love and relationship. They remind us that even the greatest minds, who can chart the birth of stars and the death of black holes, may still stumble before the depths of the human heart.

To call women a mystery is not to diminish them, but to exalt the depth of their being. Mystery is what compels the seeker, what humbles the proud, what keeps the human spirit reaching beyond itself. Just as the universe is infinite in its complexity, so too is the nature of woman — her strength, her tenderness, her contradictions, her power to inspire and to bewilder. Hawking, who sought answers to the riddles of creation, found in women a riddle no equations could solve.

History has long spoken of this truth. Consider the poets of ancient Greece, who sang of Helen, whose beauty launched a thousand ships, yet whose choices and spirit confounded kings. Or the tale of Cleopatra, whose intelligence and charm bent the wills of mighty rulers, while her true motives remained veiled in shadow. Again and again, men of power and learning confessed that they could not fully grasp the heart and mind of a woman — and yet, they were drawn irresistibly to that very unknowability.

Hawking’s confession also teaches us that wisdom lies in knowing one’s limits. The greatest error of mankind has been the attempt to reduce women to simple roles or explanations, to strip away their mystery in pursuit of control. But their mystery is their strength, the fountain of life, creativity, and resilience. To honor that mystery is not weakness but reverence, a recognition that some truths are not meant to be solved, but cherished.

Let the generations remember: not all mysteries exist to be unraveled. Some exist to teach humility, to inspire wonder, to call forth poetry instead of equations. In naming women a mystery, Hawking did not admit defeat, but acknowledged a truth as vast as the cosmos: that the human heart is the greatest frontier of all. And perhaps it is in mystery itself that love, awe, and reverence find their home.