Going out of style isn’t a natural process, but a manipulated change which destroys the beauty of last year’s dress in order to make it worthless.
B. F. SKINNERSome 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.
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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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.
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The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
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The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience.
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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.
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If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
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Teachers must learn how to teach they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching.
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Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.
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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.
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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.
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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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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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If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.
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