American - Psychologist | March 20, 1904 - August 18, 1990
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
DailyAchievementPeopleSmallHand
I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.
MenI AmAnimalsMilitaryUseAm
I don't think my mother and father ever had any doubts about what I was to be punished for or not. My parents come from a very strictly defined culture.
FatherMotherCultureParentsThink
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.
WorkGreatCultureMoneyPeopleNew
Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful.
PositivePowerfulUsedReinforcement
Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.
ChildMeHimAnythingShapeGive Me
We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
LoveGreatReadingTeachBooks
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?
FutureWaitProblemsEnvironment
When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
InterestingYouRunStudyEverything
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.
PeopleBehaviorCreatingResponsible
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.
LifeMeDesignDecisionsMy LifeUp
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
SocietyEarlyIndividualHelpless
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