Behaviorbabe > Behaviorbabe's Quotes

“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.”
― B. F. Skinner

“Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.”
― 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. ”
― 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.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“Society already possesses the psychological techniques needed to obtain universal observance of a code -- a code which would guarantee the success of a community or state. The difficulty is that these techniques are in the hands of the wrong people--or, rather, there aren't any right people.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“The majority of people don't want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. What they ask for is merely some assurance that they will be decently provided for. The rest is a day-to-day enjoyment of life. That's the explanation for your Father Divines; people naturally flock to anyone they can trust for the necessities of life... They are the backbone of a community--solid, trust-worthy, essential.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“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 of equal achievements who get none. When one man gets a place in the sun, the others are put in a denser shade. From the point of view of the whole group there's no gain whatsoever, and perhaps a loss.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“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.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“Nowadays, everybody fancies himself an expert in government and wants to have a say.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“In a democracy, there is no check against despotism, because the principle of democracy is supposed to be itself a check. But it guarantees only that the majority will not be despotically ruled.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he's often sure he can find one. And that's a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“Men build society and society builds men.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“...not everyone is willing to defend a position of 'not knowing.' There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.”
― B.F. Skinner

“We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.”
― B. F. Skinner

“If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.”
― 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.”
― B.F. Skinner, Contingencies of Reinforcement; A Theoretical Analysis

“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 wait until a sufficient number of details have been forgotten. Of course things seem simpler then! Our memories work that way; we retain the facts which are easiest to think about.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“The tender sentiment of the 'one and only' has less to do with constancy of heart than with singleness of opportunity.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“Once in a while a new government initiates a program to put power to better use, but its success or failure never really proves anything. In science, experiments are designed, checked, altered, repeated-- but not in politics... We have no real cumulative knowledge. History tells us nothing. That's the tragedy of a political reformer.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“The amateur doesn't appreciate the need for experimentation. He wants his experts to know.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

“The world's a poor standard. any society which is free of hunger and violence looks bright against that background.”
― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two