B. F. Skinner

“Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection?”

“I won't say that I'm an agnostic, since agnosticism maintains that one cannot know... but I'm not averse to the idea of some intelligence or some organizing force that set up the initial conditions of the universe in such a way that ultimately generated stars, planets and life.”

“I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.”

“A person who has been punished is not less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.”

“Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.”

“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.”

“The strengthening of behavior which results from reinforcement is appropriately called "conditioning". In operant conditioning we "strengthen" an operant in the sense of making a response more probable or, in actual fact, more frequent.”

“Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.”

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

“We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.”

“The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.”

“Ethical control may survive in small groups, but the control of the population as a whole must be delegated to specialists—to police, priests, owners, teachers, therapists, and so on, with their specialized reinforcers and their codified contingencies.”

“We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word "admire" then means "marvel at."”

“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.”

“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.”

“"I have been misunderstood" An interview with B.F.Skinner 1972 March/April Center Magazine, pp. 63−65”

“Many instructional arrangements seem "contrived", but there is nothing wrong with that. It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. Their relevance to a future usefulness need not be obvious. It is a difficult assignment. The conditions the teacher arranges must be powerful enough to compete with those under which the student tends to behave in distracting ways.”

“I do not admire myself as a person. My successes do not override my shortcomings.”

“The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.”

“It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life.”

“I did not direct my life. I didn’t design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That’s what life is.”

“If you're old, don't try to change yourself, change your environment.”

“If you're old, don't try to change yourself, change your environment.”

“I remember when I was a freshman in college, I was still somewhat bothered by... worried... about religion. I remember going to this professor of philosophy and telling him that I had lost my faith.”

“We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”

“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.”