B.F. Skinner

“The amateur doesn't appreciate the need for experimentation. He wants his experts to know.”

— B.F. Skinner

“In a pre-scientific society the best the common man can do is pin his faith on a leader and give him his…

— B.F. Skinner

“One may take the line that metaphorical devices are inevitable in the early stages of any science and that although we may…

— B.F. Skinner

“Democracy is the spawn of despotism. And like father, like son. Democracy is power and rule. It's not the will of the…

— B.F. Skinner

“The most effective alternative process [to punishment] is probably extinction. This takes time but is much more rapid than allowing the response…

— B.F. Skinner

“Science not only describes, it predicts. It deals not only with the past but with the future. Nor is prediction the last…

— B.F. Skinner

“This is implied in the assertion that a man shows certain behavior because he was “born that way.” To object to this…

— B.F. Skinner

“Severe punishment unquestionably has an immediate effect in reducing a tendency to act in a given way. This result is no doubt…

— B.F. Skinner

“Once in a while a new government initiates a program to put power to better use, but its success or failure never…

— B.F. Skinner

“Promising paradise or threatening hell-fire is, we assumed, generally admitted to be unproductive. It is based upon a fundamental fraud which, when…

— B.F. Skinner

“In a democracy, there is no check against despotism, because the principle of democracy is supposed to be itself a check. But…

— B.F. Skinner

“We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled, though they are following a code much more scrupulously than was…

— B.F. Skinner

“Compare two people, one of whom has been crippled by an accident, the other by an early environmental history which makes him…

— B.F. Skinner

“The tender sentiment of the 'one and only' has less to do with constancy of heart than with singleness of opportunity.”

— B.F. Skinner

“This week we'll be learning about key elements of high quality picture books. Using the award winner lists in our course materials,…

— B.F. Skinner

“Nowadays, everybody fancies himself an expert in government and wants to have a say.”

— B.F. Skinner

“Why did colleges make their students take examinations, and why did they give grade? What did a grade really mean? When a…

— B.F. Skinner

“The hero is a device which the historian has taken over from the layman. He uses it because he has no scientific…

— B.F. Skinner

“The final state of affairs may not have been foreseen. Perhaps we are merely reading a plan into the world after the…

— B.F. Skinner