Something doing every minute’ may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.
B. F. SKINNERThe consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
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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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Behavior is determined by its consequences.
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If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.
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A 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.
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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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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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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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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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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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I’ve often said that my rats have taught me much more than I’ve taught them.
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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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If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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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.
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Indeed one of the ultimate advantages of an education is simply coming to the end of it.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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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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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.
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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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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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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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I don’t believe in God, so I’m not afraid of dying.
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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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At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.
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The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.
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