When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
B. F. SKINNERI’ve often said that my rats have taught me much more than I’ve taught them.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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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.
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The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.
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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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A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.
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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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In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can’t buy love with gifts or favors, you can’t hold love by raising an inadequate child, and you can’t be secure in love by serving as a good scrub woman or a good provider.
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A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go.
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Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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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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A disappointment is not generally an oversight. It might just be the best one can do the situation being what it is. The genuine error is to quit attempting.
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A first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: when you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
B. F. SKINNER