B.F. Skinner

Quotes

• “Promising paradise or threatening hell-fire is, we assumed, generally admitted to be unproductive. It is based upon a fu...”
• “Fame is also won at the expense of others. Even the well-deserved honors of the scientist or man of learning are unfair ...”
• “In the world at large we seldom vote for a principle or a given state of affairs. We vote for a man who pretends to beli...”
• “Society already possesses the psychological techniques needed to obtain universal observance of a code -- a code which w...”
• “In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can’t buy love with gifts or ...”
• “Your liberals and radicals all want to govern. They want to try it their way-- to show that people will be happier if th...”
• “In a pre-scientific society the best the common man can do is pin his faith on a leader and give him his support, trusti...”
• “I would have been glad to agree to let them all proceed henceforth in complete ignorance of psychology, if they would fo...”
• “We shouldn't teach great books we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a...”
• “No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have a...”
• “Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is pos...”
• “At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But pr...”
• “The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers...”
• “A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.”