Quotes by B. F. Skinner

I dont know whether I want to improve religion or not. I prefer to get rid of it.

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

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

Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful.

I did not direct my life. I didnt design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. Thats what life is.

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

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

Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.

If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down.

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?

“We shouldnt 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.”