B. F. Skinner

Reinforcement is being right.

— B. F. Skinner

The environment shapes people's actions.

— B. F. Skinner

I'm very pessimistic.

— B. F. Skinner

Great scientific contributions have been techniques.

— B. F. Skinner

Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful.

— B. F. Skinner

I never really expected to be controversial.

— B. F. Skinner

We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.

— B. F. Skinner

I don't believe in God, so I'm not afraid of dying.

— B. F. Skinner

Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli

— B. F. Skinner

When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.

— B. F. Skinner

Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.

— B. F. Skinner

I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.

— B. F. Skinner

A disappointment is not generally an oversight. It might just be the best one can do the situation being what it is.…

— B. F. Skinner

An important fact about verbal behavior is that speaker and listener may reside within the same skin.

— B. F. Skinner

Indeed one of the ultimate advantages of an education is simply coming to the end of it.

— B. F. Skinner

Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.

— B. F. Skinner

I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for…

— B. F. Skinner

We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word 'admire' then means 'marvel at.'

— B. F. Skinner

A person who has been punished is not less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to…

— B. F. Skinner

The human species took a crucial step forward when its vocal musculature came under operant control in the production of speech sounds.…

— B. F. Skinner

A child who has been severely punished for sex play is not necessarily less inclined to continue; and a man who has…

— B. F. Skinner

The problem of far greater importance remains to be solved. Rather than build a world in which we shall all live well,…

— B. F. Skinner

The simulated approval and affection with which parents and teachers are often urged to solve behavior problems are counterfeit. So are flattery,…

— B. F. Skinner

Religions work for their own aggrandizement - strengthen the church and so on - and they use reinforcers of one kind or…

— B. F. Skinner

I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of the rat and man (aside from…

— B. F. Skinner

Better contraceptives will control population only if people will use them. A nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under…

— B. F. Skinner

The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce…

— B. F. Skinner

To say that a man is sinful because he sins is to give an operational definition of sin. To say that he…

— B. F. Skinner

No theory changes what it is a theory about. Nothing is changed because we look at it, talk about it, or analyze…

— B. F. Skinner

Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for…

— B. F. Skinner

In the traditional view, a person is free. He is autonomous in the sense that his behavior is uncaused. He can therefore…

— B. F. Skinner

I've had only one idea in my life - a true idee fixe. To put it as bluntly as possible - the…

— B. F. Skinner

If you're old, don't try to change yourself, change your environment.

— B. F. Skinner

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

— B. F. Skinner

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

— B. F. Skinner

When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.

— B. F. Skinner

Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.

— B. F. Skinner

That's all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

— B. F. Skinner

A self is a repertoire of behavior appropriate to a given set of contingencies.

— B. F. Skinner

I don't know whether I want to improve religion or not. I prefer to get rid of it.

— B. F. Skinner