Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything. B. F. Skinner More Quotes by B. F. Skinner More Quotes From B. F. Skinner In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can't buy love with gifts or favors, you can't hold love by raising an inadequate child, and you can't be secure in love by serving as a good scrub woman or a good provider. B. F. Skinner deserve-you children world The human species took a crucial step forward when its vocal musculature came under operant control in the production of speech sounds. Indeed, it is possible that all the distinctive achievements of the species can be traced to that one genetic change. B. F. Skinner achievement sound education The extent to which human aggression exemplifies innate tendencies is not clear. B. F. Skinner tendencies aggression clear Overcrowding can be corrected only by inducing people not to crowd, and the environment will continue to deteriorate until polluting practices are abandoned. B. F. Skinner crowds practice people Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished. B. F. Skinner punishment doe education The world's a poor standard. any society which is free of hunger and violence looks bright against that background. B. F. Skinner violence looks world Physics does not change the nature of the world it studies, and no science of behavior can change the essential nature of man, even though both sciences yield technologies with a vast power to manipulate their subject matters. B. F. Skinner I have to tell people that they are not responsible for their behavior. They're not creating it; they're not initiating anything. It's all found somewhere else. That's an awful lot to relinquish. B. F. Skinner somewhere tell behavior people Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful. B. F. Skinner reinforcement used powerful positive A person who has been punished is not less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment. B. F. Skinner person best punishment way The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone. B. F. Skinner everyone environment behavior way The environment shapes people's actions. B. F. Skinner actions environment shapes people Behavior used to be reinforced by great deprivation; if people weren't hungry, they wouldn't work. Now we are committed to feeding people whether they work or not. Nor is money as great a reinforcer as it once was. People no longer work for punitive reasons, yet our culture offers no new satisfactions. B. F. Skinner money work culture people I don't deny the importance of genetics. However, the fact that I might be altruistic isn't because I have a gene for altruism; the fact that I do something for my children at some cost to myself comes from a history that has operated on me. B. F. Skinner myself me history children If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down. B. F. Skinner down you individual society I never really expected to be controversial. B. F. Skinner really never controversial expected The feeling of being interested can act as a kind of neurological signal, directing us to fruitful areas of inquiry. B. F. Skinner act us feeling being 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. B. F. Skinner intelligence space stars life Even the mundane task of washing dishes by hand is an example of the small tasks and personal activities that once filled people's daily lives with a sense of achievement. B. F. Skinner daily small achievement people
