Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful. B. F. Skinner More Quotes by B. F. Skinner More Quotes From B. F. Skinner Except when physically restrained, a person is least free or dignified when he is under threat of punishment, and unfortunately most people often are. B. F. Skinner threatpunishmentpeople The speaker does not feel the grammatical rules he is said to apply in composing sentences, and men spoke grammatically for thousands of years before anyone knew there were rules. B. F. Skinner doemenyears The simulated approval and affection with which parents and teachers are often urged to solve behavior problems are counterfeit. So are flattery, backslap-ping, and many other ways of "winning friends. B. F. Skinner parentwinningteacher Society already possesses the psychological techniques needed to obtain universal observance of a code - a code which would guarantee the success of a community or state. The difficulty is that these techniques are in the hands of the wrong people-or, rather, there aren't any right people. B. F. Skinner communityhandspeople Those who have had anything useful to say have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent. B. F. Skinner has-beenssaid Each of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age. B. F. Skinner powerfulwinningrunning When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom. B. F. Skinner men The alphabet was a great invention, which enabled men to store and to learn with little effort what others had learned the hard way-that is, to learn from books rather than from direct, possibly painful, contact with the real world. B. F. Skinner realmenbook A culture must be reasonably stable, but it must also change, and it will presumably be strongest if it can avoid excessive respect for tradition and fear of novelty on the one hand and excessively rapid change on the other. B. F. Skinner noveltyculturehands Going out of style isn't a natural process, but a manipulated change which destroys the beauty of last year's dress in order to make it worthless. B. F. Skinner styleorderyears A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he's often sure he can find one. And that's a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy. B. F. Skinner answersmayphilosophy Science, not religion, has taught me my most useful values, among them intellectual honesty. It is better to go without answers than to accept those that merely resolve puzzlement. B. F. Skinner honestyintellectualeducation A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort. B. F. Skinner dedicationtechnologyscience 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? B. F. Skinner holocaustnuclearwaiting Something doing every minute' may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom. B. F. Skinner boredomdespairbattle We have seen that in certain respects operant reinforcement resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement. B. F. Skinner mutationreinforcementbehavior Many social practices essential to the welfare of the species involve the control of one person by another, and no one can suppress them who has any concern for human achievements B. F. Skinner achievementsocietypractice If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers. B. F. Skinner populationbalancenumbers We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word 'admire' then means 'marvel at.' B. F. Skinner admiremeanpeople We have not yet seen what man can make of man. B. F. Skinner men
