To say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.
B. F. SKINNERSomething doing every minute’ may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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…not everyone is willing to defend a position of ‘not knowing.’ There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.
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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.
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A child who has been severely punished for sex play is not necessarily less inclined to continue; and a man who has been imprisoned for violent assault is not necessarily less inclined toward violence.
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The juvenile delinquent does not feel his disturbed personality. The intelligent man does not feel his intelligence or the introvert his introversion.
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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 shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
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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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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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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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Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go.
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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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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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Behavior is determined by its consequences.
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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.
B. F. SKINNER