A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
B. F. SKINNERBut 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.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn’t die out, it’s wiped out.
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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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Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
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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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If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.
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Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools?
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We have not yet seen what man can make of man.
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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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We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.
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Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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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.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of the rat and man (aside from enormous differences of complexity) lie in the field of verbal behavior.
B. F. SKINNER