But restraint is the only one sort of control, and absence of restraint isn’t freedom. It’s not control that’s lacking when one feels ‘free’, but the objectionable control of force.
B. F. SKINNERThe real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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If you’re old, don’t try to change yourself, change your environment.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.
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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 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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We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
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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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We are only just beginning to understand the power of love because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of force and aggression.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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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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A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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Your liberals and radicals all want to govern. They want to try it their way- to show that people will be happier if the power is wielded in a different way or for different purposes. But how do they know? Have they ever tried it? No, it’s merely their guess.
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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 real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
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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 permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
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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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Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
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The one fact that I would cry form every housetop is this: the Good Life is waiting for us – here and now.
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A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort.
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Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.
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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.
B. F. SKINNER