Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
B. F. SKINNERA 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.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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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 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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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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It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student’s life.
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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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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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Teachers must learn how to teach they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching.
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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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I did not direct my life. I didn’t design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That’s what life is.
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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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A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.
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Something doing every minute’ may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
B. F. SKINNER