A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.
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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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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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.
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Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.
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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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The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience.
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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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To say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.
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I’ve often said that my rats have taught me much more than I’ve taught them.
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Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.
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The juvenile delinquent does not feel his disturbed personality. The intelligent man does not feel his intelligence or the introvert his introversion.
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Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
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The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
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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.
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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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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
B. F. SKINNER