B. F. Skinner Quotes

Quotes about:

Achievement Age Books Children Culture Education Effort

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.

343 Copy quote
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

375 Copy quote
Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.

B. F. Skinner

Education, Children, Giving

285 Copy quote
Behavior is determined by its consequences.

B. F. Skinner

Determined, Behavior, Consequence

239 Copy quote
The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience.

B. F. Skinner

Differences, People, Rats

255 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

216 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

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Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences

B. F. Skinner

Behavior, Consequence

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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

163 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.

186 Copy quote
That's all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

B. F. Skinner

Teaching, Behavior, Contingency

204 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.

163 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

184 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.

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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

170 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

20 Copy quote
Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.

B. F. Skinner

Behavior, Persons, Consequence

119 Copy quote
The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.

B. F. Skinner

Probability, Consequence

28 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

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Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.

B. F. Skinner

Justice, Doe, Behavior

114 Copy quote
It is a surprising fact that those who object most violently to the manipulation of behaviour nevertheless make the most vigorous effort to manipulate minds.

B. F. Skinner

Effort, Mind, Behaviour

87 Copy quote
The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior - verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt. It is not some mysterious process responsible for behavior but the very behavior itself in all the complexity of its controlling relations.

B. F. Skinner

Education, Views, Mysterious

63 Copy quote
A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.

B. F. Skinner

Education, Doe, May

B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.109, Hackett Publishing

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A self is a repertoire of behavior appropriate to a given set of contingencies.

B. F. Skinner

Self, Behavior, Given

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No theory changes what it is a theory about. Nothing is changed because we look at it, talk about it, or analyze it in a new way. Keats drank confusion to Newton for analyzing the rainbow, but the rainbow remained as beautiful as ever and became for many even more beautiful. Man has not changed because we look at him, talk about him, and analyze him scientifically. ... What does change is our chance of doing something about the subject of a theory. Newton's analysis of the light in a rainbow was a step in the direction of the laser.

B. F. Skinner

Beautiful, Men, Light

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Born: March 20, 1904
Died: August 18, 1990
Occupation: Psychologist
Cite this Page: Citation

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