A person’s genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest.
B. F. SKINNERThe consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he’s often sure he can find one. And that’s a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.
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Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is possible, and blaming our failure on being born the wrong way.
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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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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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A person’s genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest.
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That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.
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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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Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.
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Twenty-five hundred years ago it might have been said that man understood himself as well as any other part of the world. Today he is the thing he understands least.
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Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.
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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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I will be dead in a few months. But it hasn’t given me the slightest anxiety or worry. I always knew I was going to die.
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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 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.
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