All B.F. Skinner Quotes
- Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose… Ask
- Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools? Actually Easier
- A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid… Avoid
- A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the… Been
- Something doing every minute' may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom. Battle
- Many instructional arrangements seem "contrived," but there is nothing wrong with that. It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. It… Arrangements
- That's all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior. All
- We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement.… Achievement
- The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man. Machine
- The strengthening of behavior which results from reinforcement is appropriately called 'conditioning'. In operant conditioning we 'strengthen' an operant in the sense of making a… Actual
- We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word 'admire' then means 'marvel at.' Admire
- Fame is also won at the expense of others. Even the well-deserved honors of the scientist or man of learning are unfair to many persons… Achievement
- But restraint is the only one sort of control, and absence of restraint isn't freedom. It's not control that's lacking when one feels 'free', but… Absence
- In the traditional view, a person is free. He is autonomous in the sense that his behavior is uncaused. He can therefore be held responsible… Analysis
- It is not a question of starting. The start has been made. It's a question of what's to be done from now on. Been
- When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom. Controlling
- Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would… Accomplished
- The world's a poor standard. any society which is free of hunger and violence looks bright against that background. Any
- I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of the rat and man (aside from enormous differences of… Aside
- Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli Construction
- Any single historical event is too complex to be adequately known by anyone. It transcends all the intellectual capacities of men. Our practice is to… Adequately
- To say that... behaviors have different 'meanings' is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables. Another Way
- Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive. Behaved
- We have not yet seen what man can make of man. Funny
- Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about. Breeds