35 Notable Quotes By B. F. Skinner, The Most Influential Psychologist Of The 20th Century
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was a renowned psychologist famous for being the innovator of the field of behaviorism in psychology. He pursued his graduation from the renowned Harvard University. He was interested in studying the behavior of birds and devised an apparatus called the ‘Skinner Box’. This device helped him study the behavior of animals in their natural environment. He penned down his observations in a book titled ‘The Behavior of Organisms’. After completing his research from Harvard he went on to become a professor at the University of Minnesota to further serve for a shorter period as the chairperson of the psychology department at Indiana University. He further invented a device which helped in teaching a broader range of students and even wrote ‘The Technology of Teaching’. He further wrote many books on his behavioral theories including ‘About Behaviorism’. He was honored with the gold medal and the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the ‘American Psychology Association’. We bring to you a treasure trove of quotes that have been excerpted from his work, lectures, books and writings. Skinner's quotes are very intellectual and thought provoking. Read on to explore a compilation of some of the best known quotes by B. F. Skinner.
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.
Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.
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.
The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn't die out, it's wiped out.
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.
Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is possible, and blaming our failure on being born the wrong way.
We are only just beginning to understand the power of love because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of force and aggression.
What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.
The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
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.
At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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.
If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.
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.
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.
...not everyone is willing to defend a position of 'not knowing.' There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.
The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
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.
We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
Democracy is the spawn of despotism. And like father, like son. Democracy is power and rule. It's not the will of the people, remember; it's the will of the majority.
But restraint is the only one sort of control, and absence of restraint isn't freedom. It's not control that's lacking when one feels 'free', but the objectionable control of force.
Men build society and society builds men.
A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself.
The world's a poor standard. any society which is free of hunger and violence looks bright against that background.
Something doing every minute' may be a gesture of despair--or the height of a battle against boredom.
The amateur doesn't appreciate the need for experimentation. He wants his experts to know.
The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
