To require a citizen to sign a loyalty oath is to destroy some of the loyalty he could otherwise claim, since any subsequent loyal behavior may then be attributed to the oath.
B. F. SKINNERYour 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.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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Science, not religion, has taught me my most useful values, among them intellectual honesty. It is better to go without answers than to accept those that merely resolve puzzlement.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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We have not yet seen what man can make of man.
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Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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…not everyone is willing to defend a position of ‘not knowing.’ There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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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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Something doing every minute’ may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.
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Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.
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We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
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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.
B. F. SKINNER







