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. SKINNERWas putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools?
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
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Men build society and society builds men.
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Behavior is determined by its consequences.
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What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.
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The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
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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.
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Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.
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Something doing every minute’ may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.
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To say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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I will be dead in a few months. But it hasn’t given me the slightest anxiety or worry. I always knew I was going to die.
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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 be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.
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A child who has been severely punished for sex play is not necessarily less inclined to continue; and a man who has been imprisoned for violent assault is not necessarily less inclined toward violence.
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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.
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