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That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

B. 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. SKINNER

Feeling Man Rule Talk
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.
B. F. SKINNER

Education Failure Give Up Inspirational Mistake Perseverance Reality Stop Try
When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
B. F. SKINNER

Control Himself Men
Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.
B. F. SKINNER

Attitude Judgement Person
We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SKINNER

Choice Survive Value
That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.
B. F. SKINNER

Behavior Change Teaching Transformation
A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
B. F. SKINNER

Control Government Leaving Source
We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word ‘admire’ then means ‘marvel at.’
B. F. SKINNER

Admire Explanation Extent People Word
The problem of far greater importance remains to be solved. Rather than build a world in which we shall all live well, we must stop building one in which it will be impossible to live at all.
B. F. SKINNER

Build Education Impossible Live Philosophy Problem World
Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.
B. F. SKINNER

Children Education Himself Myself
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
B. F. SKINNER

Education Forget Graduation Survive Teacher
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.
B. F. SKINNER

Best Disappointment Mistake Perspective Quit Try
Men build society and society builds men.
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Architect Build Men Society
What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.
B. F. SKINNER

Deep Love Positive
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

Attitude Character Nature Novel Respect Seen Selection Theory
The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
B. F. SKINNER

Act Chance Repeat

That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

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That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

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