B. F. Skinner quotes

The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount. (B. F. Skinner)
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. View quote
B. F. Skinner
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 punishment. View quote
B. F. Skinner
We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. View quote
B. F. Skinner
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. View quote
B. F. Skinner
A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. View quote
B. F. Skinner
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. View quote
B. F. Skinner
Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive. View quote
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 me. That's what life is. View quote
B. F. Skinner
The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man. View quote
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)
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. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement. View quote
B. F. Skinner
If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that's necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom. View quote
B. F. Skinner
At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved. View quote
B. F. Skinner
It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life. View quote
B. F. Skinner
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 response more probable or, in actual fact, more frequent. View quote
B. F. Skinner
It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled. View quote
B. F. Skinner
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. Their relevance to a future usefulness need not be obvious. It is a difficult assignment. The conditions the teacher arranges must be powerful enough to compete with those under which the student tends to behave in distracting ways. View quote
B. F. Skinner
No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn't die out, it's wiped out. View quote
B. F. Skinner
What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa. View quote
B. F. Skinner
It is a surprising fact that those who object most violently to the manipulation of behaviour nevertheless make the most vigorous effort to manipulate minds. (B. F. Skinner)
Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is possible, and blaming our failure on being born the wrong way. View quote
B. F. Skinner
The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about. View quote
B. F. Skinner
We have not yet seen what man can make of man. View quote
B. F. Skinner
The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. View quote
B. F. Skinner