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.
B. F. SKINNERThose 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.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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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 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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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.
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Behavior is determined by its consequences.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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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.
B. F. SKINNER