To require a citizen to sign a loyalty oath is to destroy some of the loyalty he could otherwise claim, since any subsequent loyal behavior may then be attributed to the oath.
B. F. SKINNERThe 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.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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Behavior is determined by its consequences.
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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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Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
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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.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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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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A first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: when you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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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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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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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.
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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.
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We have seen that in certain respects operant reinforcement resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement.
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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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I’ve often said that my rats have taught me much more than I’ve taught them.
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