“Compare two people, one of whom has been crippled by an accident, the other by an early environmental history which makes him lazy and, when criticized, mean. Both cause great inconvenience to others, but one dies a martyr, the other… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“The hero is a device which the historian has taken over from the layman. He uses it because he has no scientific vocabulary or technique for dealing with the real facts of history-- the opinions, emotions, attitudes; the wishes, plans,… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“The amateur doesn't appreciate the need for experimentation. He wants his experts to know.” — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“In a pre-scientific society the best the common man can do is pin his faith on a leader and give him his support, trusting… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“One may take the line that metaphorical devices are inevitable in the early stages of any science and that although we may look with amusement today upon the “essences,” “forces,” “phlogistons,” and “ethers,” of the science of yesterday, these nevertheless were essential to the historical process. It would be difficult to prove or disprove this. However, if we have learned… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share
“Democracy is the spawn of despotism. And like father, like son. Democracy is power and rule. It's not the will of the people, remember;… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“The most effective alternative process [to punishment] is probably extinction. This takes time but is much more rapid than allowing the response to be forgotten. The technique seems to be relatively free of objectionable by-products. We recommend it, for example when we suggest that a parent 'pay no attention' to objectionable behavior on the part of his child. If the… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share
“Science not only describes, it predicts. It deals not only with the past but with the future. Nor is prediction the last word: to… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“This is implied in the assertion that a man shows certain behavior because he was “born that way.” To object to this is not… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“Severe punishment unquestionably has an immediate effect in reducing a tendency to act in a given way. This result is no doubt responsible for… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“Once in a while a new government initiates a program to put power to better use, but its success or failure never really proves… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“Promising paradise or threatening hell-fire is, we assumed, generally admitted to be unproductive. It is based upon a fundamental fraud which, when discovered, turns… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“In a democracy, there is no check against despotism, because the principle of democracy is supposed to be itself a check. But it guarantees… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
“We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled, though they are following a code much more scrupulously than was ever the… — B.F. Skinner Copy Share Image
