When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
B. F. SKINNERThe real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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Except when physically restrained, a person is least free or dignified when he is under threat of punishment, and unfortunately most people often are.
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Those who have had anything useful to say have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent.
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We have not yet seen what man can make of man.
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I don’t believe in God, so I’m not afraid of dying.
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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.
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Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
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Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
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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.
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Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
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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.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
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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 person’s genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest.
B. F. SKINNER