Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.
B. F. SKINNER
B. F. SKINNER
B. F. Skinner on children
B. F. Skinner107 quotes“Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.”
More from B. F. Skinner
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.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories?
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner 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.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner 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.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner Science is a willingness to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner The speaker does not feel the grammatical rules he is said to apply in composing sentences, and men spoke grammatically for thousands of years before anyone knew there were rules.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner Behavior is determined by its consequences.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner 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.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner Teachers must learn how to teach they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner 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. SkinnerB. F. Skinner Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner We are only just beginning to understand the power of love because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of force and aggression.
B. F. SkinnerB. F. Skinner
Original quotes
From our community writers
They bleed not in the mouth but through their ink – indelible and dark.
Juana GarciaJuana Garcia I would rather shoot my arrows than keep them in my bow, I would rather risk it all than risk nothing at all.
ShamaShama I wish I knew then all of the things I know now that I am enough.
TMCTMC I feel like I’m on fire, fighting for a moment on respite – I’m not placing bets.
M.K. StandbyM.K. Standby I found him in all the chaos, and that was when my world started making sense again.
MoomerMoomer The judgement that people cast on you for how you do or do not appear is nothing more than just a projection of their own wounds.
Taj AroraTaj Arora Be grateful for what you have now, even if it’s not everything you wanted.
Sonia SabnisSonia Sabnis It seems strange how we look in the same mirror, yet what stares back, is so painfully different.
Chris AllchinChris Allchin
More on children
There will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel.
Golda MeirGolda Meir The right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is among the unalienable rights with which the Declaration of Independence proclaims ‘all Men are endowed by their Creator.’
Antonin ScaliaAntonin Scalia I accept my body. I accept how I am and make the best of what I am given. Children orientate towards examples. That’s why I talk solely positive about my body in front of my daughter.
Kate WinsletKate Winslet There is nothing more precious to a parent than a child, and nothing more important to our future than the safety of all our children.
Bill ClintonBill Clinton I love little kids looking up to me, young players looking up to me, respecting me.
David BeckhamDavid Beckham I think every young child can learn through any martial art. They would then learn to respect their life, respect their parents, respect their country, and respect the whole world.
Jackie ChanJackie Chan The most inspirational man I knew only reached his potential by helping a child reach his.
Mitch AlbomMitch Albom In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it’s not perfect, that’s okay, there are a lot more coming along.
Antonin ScaliaAntonin Scalia
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