B. F. Skinner Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, Perseverance, Giving Up

  404 Copy quote

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Punishment, Way, Psychological

  "Beyond Freedom and Dignity". Book by B. F. Skinner, 1972.

  358 Copy quote

• Behavior is determined by its consequences.

  B. F. Skinner

  Determined, Behavior, Consequence

  247 Copy quote

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Reinforcement, Facts, Behavior

  B.F Skinner (2012). “Science And Human Behavior”, p.65, Simon and Schuster

  221 Copy quote

• The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience.

  B. F. Skinner

  Differences, People, Rats

  266 Copy quote

• Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, Children, Giving

  293 Copy quote

• Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences

  B. F. Skinner

  Behavior, Consequence

  198 Copy quote

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

  B. F. Skinner

  Graduation, Education, Teacher

  New Scientist 21 May 1964

  258 Copy quote

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

  B. F. Skinner

  Reality, Important, Way

  "Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much". Book by Jonathon Lazear and Wendy Lazear, p. 5, 1993.

  198 Copy quote

• We are only just beginning to understand the power of love because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of force and aggression.

  B. F. Skinner

  Weakness, Power Of Love, Force

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.97, Hackett Publishing

  170 Copy quote

• That's all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

  B. F. Skinner

  Teaching, Behavior, Contingency

  208 Copy quote

• The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.

  B. F. Skinner

  Probability, Consequence

  31 Copy quote

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, Teacher, Book

  "The Man and His Ideas". Book by Richard Isadore Evans (p. 73), 1968.

  168 Copy quote

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Done, Starting, Made

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.257, Hackett Publishing

  188 Copy quote

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, Reality, Design

  "The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology Vol. 4". Book edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn, Ch. 99, p. 872 ("Unpacking the Skinner Box : Revisiting B. F. Skinner through a Postformal Lens" by Dana Salter), 2008.

  150 Copy quote

• What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.

  B. F. Skinner

  Names, What Is Love, Vices

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.282, Hackett Publishing

  176 Copy quote

• Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.

  B. F. Skinner

  Behavior, Persons, Consequence

  127 Copy quote

• Science is a willingness to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes.

  B. F. Skinner

  Wish, Facts, Accepting

  B.F Skinner (2012). “Science And Human Behavior”, p.12, Simon and Schuster

  23 Copy quote

• If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.

  B. F. Skinner

  Illusion, Humans, Human Happiness

  19 Copy quote

• Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go.

  B. F. Skinner

  Country, Age, Enjoy

  13 Copy quote

• An important fact about verbal behavior is that speaker and listener may reside within the same skin.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, Important, Skins

  B. F. Skinner (2014). “Verbal Behavior”, p.145, B. F. Skinner Foundation

  67 Copy quote

• Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.

  B. F. Skinner

  Men, Genius, Chaos

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.116, Hackett Publishing

  35 Copy quote

• 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.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, World, Impossible

  31 Copy quote

• Teachers must learn how to teach ... they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching.

  B. F. Skinner

  Teacher, Teaching, Needs

  40 Copy quote

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

  B. F. Skinner

  Real, Science, Technology

  'Contingencies of Reinforcement' (1969) ch. 9

  49 Copy quote

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