B.F. Skinner Quotes & Sayings

A person's genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest. — B.F. Skinner

Science is a willingness to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes. — B.F. Skinner

The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread. — B.F. Skinner

Severe punishment unquestionably has an immediate effect in reducing a tendency to act in a given way. This result is no doubt responsible for its widespread use. We 'instinctively' attack anyone whose behavior displeases us - perhaps not in physical assault, but with criticism, disapproval, blame, or ridicule. Whether or not there is an inherited tendency to do this, the immediate effect of the practice is reinforcing enough to explain its currency. In the long run, however, punishment does not actually eliminate behavior from a repertoire, and its temporary achievement is obtained at tremendous cost in reducing the over-all efficiency and happiness of the group. (p. 190) — B.F. Skinner

The amateur doesn't appreciate the need for experimentation. He wants his experts to know. — B.F. Skinner

Great scientific contributions have been techniques. — B.F. Skinner

In a democracy, there is no check against despotism, because the principle of democracy is supposed to be itself a check. But it guarantees only that the majority will not be despotically ruled. — B.F. Skinner

I've often said that my rats have taught me much more than I've taught them. — B.F. Skinner

The rat is always right. — B.F. Skinner

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

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

Once in a while a new government initiates a program to put power to better use, but its success or failure never really proves anything. In science, experiments are designed, checked, altered, repeated
but not in politics ... We have no real cumulative knowledge. History tells us nothing. That's the tragedy of a political reformer. — B.F. Skinner

A disappointment is not generally an oversight. It might just be the best one can do the situation being what it is. The genuine error is to quit attempting. — B.F. Skinner

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

The feeling of being interested can act as a kind of neurological signal, directing us to fruitful areas of inquiry. — B.F. Skinner

The hero is a device which the historian has taken over from the layman. He uses it because he has no scientific vocabulary or technique for dealing with the real facts of history
the opinions, emotions, attitudes; the wishes, plans, schemes; the habits of men. He can't talk about them so he talks about heroes. — B.F. Skinner

I believe that I have been basically anarchistic, anti-religion and anti-industry and business. In other words, anti-bureaucracy. I would like to see people behave well without having to have priests stand by, politicians stand by, or people collecting bills. — B.F. Skinner

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. — B.F. Skinner

Something doing every minute' may be a gesture of despair
or the height of a battle against boredom. — B.F. Skinner

You can get along very well in this world by simply coming up with a quantity of reasonably valid statements. — B.F. Skinner

A child who has been severely punished for sex play is not necessarily less inclined to continue; and a man who has been imprisoned for violent assault is not necessarily less inclined toward violence. — B.F. Skinner

I will be dead in a few months. But it hasn't given me the slightest anxiety or worry. I always knew I was going to die. — B.F. Skinner

Your liberals and radicals all want to govern. They want to try it their way
to show that people will be happier if the power is wielded in a different way or for different purposes. But how do they know? Have they ever tried it? No, it's merely their guess. — B.F. Skinner

When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom. — B.F. Skinner

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. — B.F. Skinner

The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. — B.F. Skinner

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. — B.F. Skinner

Men build society and society builds men. — B.F. Skinner

Reinforcement is being right. — B.F. Skinner

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

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. — B.F. Skinner

Any single historical event is too complex to be adequately known by anyone. It transcends all the intellectual capacities of men. Our practice is to wait until a sufficient number of details have been forgotten. Of course things seem simpler then! Our memories work that way; we retain the facts which are easiest to think about. — B.F. Skinner

It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled. — B.F. Skinner

Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories? — B.F. Skinner

Behavior is determined by its consequences. — B.F. Skinner

Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go. — B.F. Skinner

A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources. — B.F. Skinner

If you're old, don't try to change yourself, change your environment. — B.F. Skinner

The tender sentiment of the 'one and only' has less to do with constancy of heart than with singleness of opportunity. — B.F. Skinner

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

I never really expected to be controversial. — B.F. Skinner

We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word 'admire' then means 'marvel at.' — B.F. Skinner

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

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. — B.F. Skinner

An important fact about verbal behavior is that speaker and listener may reside within the same skin. — B.F. Skinner

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. — B.F. Skinner

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

The severest trial of oppression is the constant outrage which one suffers at the thought of the oppressor. What Jesus discovered was how to avoid the inner devastations. His technique was to practice the opposite emotion ... [a man] may not get his freedom or possessions back, but he's less miserable. It's a difficult lesson. — B.F. Skinner

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

Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful. — B.F. Skinner

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

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

Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack-vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy-a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products. — B.F. Skinner

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. — B.F. Skinner

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

I would be opposed to any kind of totalitarian control. — B.F. Skinner

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

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

Better contraceptives will control population only if people will use them. A nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed. The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. We need to make vast changes in human behavior. — B.F. Skinner

The people who control the condition in which we live have no reason to think beyond more than the next five or 10 years. — B.F. Skinner

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

Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. It enslaves him almost before he has tasted freedom. The 'ologies' will tell you how its done Theology calls it building a conscience or developing a spirit of selflessness. Psychology calls it the growth of the superego.
Considering how long society has been at it, you'd expect a better job. But the campaigns have been badly planned and the victory has never been secured. — B.F. Skinner

The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience. — 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. — B.F. Skinner

The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again. — B.F. Skinner

I've had only one idea in my life - a true idee fixe. To put it as bluntly as possible - the idea of having my own way. 'Control!' expresses it. The control of human behavior. In my early experimental days it was a frenzied, selfish desire to dominate. I remember the rage I used to feel when a prediction went awry. I could have shouted at the subjects of my experiments, 'Behave, damn you! Behave as you ought! — B.F. Skinner

You must feel a certain lack of excitement in these accouncements. No garish posters, no bright lights, none of the paraphernalia with which the entertainment industry whips up a jaded public. But in a day or so these simple notices will begin to take on all the excitement of the shimmering marquee. When there are no signs ten feet high, five feet will do. When there are none five feet high, one foot serves well enough. It isn't the color or brightness or size of a poster which makes it exciting. It's the experiences which have accompanied similar posters in the past. The excitement is a conditioned reflex. Our bulletin board is our Great White Way, and we're dazzled by it. — B.F. Skinner

The majority of people don't want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. What they ask for is merely some assurance that they will be decently provided for. The rest is a day-to-day enjoyment of life. That's the explanation for your Father Divines; people naturally flock to anyone they can trust for the necessities of life ... They are the backbone of a community
solid, trust-worthy, essential. — B.F. Skinner

To say that a man is sinful because he sins is to give an operational definition of sin. To say that he sins because he is sinful is to trace his behavior to a supposed inner trait. But whether or not a person engages in the kind of behavior called sinful depends upon circumstances which are not mentioned in either question. The sin assigned as an inner possession (the sin a person "knows") is to be found in a history of reinforcement. — B.F. Skinner

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

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

small communities — 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

Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value. — B.F. Skinner

I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of the rat and man (aside from enormous differences of complexity) lie in the field of verbal behavior. — B.F. Skinner

To require a citizen to sign a loyalty oath is to destroy some of the loyalty he could otherwise claim, since any subsequent loyal behavior may then be attributed to the oath. — B.F. Skinner

The juvenile delinquent does not feel his disturbed personality. The intelligent man does not feel his intelligence or the introvert his introversion. — B.F. Skinner

The most effective alternative process [to punishment] is probably extinction. This takes time but is much more rapid than allowing the response to be forgotten. The technique seems to be relatively free of objectionable by-products. We recommend it, for example when we suggest that a parent 'pay no attention' to objectionable behavior on the part of his child. If the child's behavior is strong only because it has been reinforced by 'getting a rise out of' the parent, it will disappear when this consequence is no longer forthcoming. (p. 192) — B.F. Skinner

Twenty-five hundred years ago it might have been said that man understood himself as well as any other part of the world. Today he is the thing he understands least. — B.F. Skinner

No theory changes what it is a theory about; man remains what he has always been. — B.F. Skinner

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

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

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

I would have been glad to agree to let them all proceed henceforth in complete ignorance of psychology, if they would forget my opinion of chocolate sodas or the story of the amusing episode on a Spanish streetcar. — B.F. Skinner

In the world at large we seldom vote for a principle or a given state of affairs. We vote for a man who pretends to believe in that principle or promises to achieve that state. We don't want a man, we want a condition of peace and plenty
or, it may be, war and want
but we must vote for a man. — B.F. Skinner

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

Promising paradise or threatening hell-fire is, we assumed, generally admitted to be unproductive. It is based upon a fundamental fraud which, when discovered, turns the individual against society and nourishes the very thing it tries to stamp out. What Jesus offered in return of loving one's enemies was heaven on earth, better known as peace of mind. — B.F. Skinner

Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior. — B.F. Skinner

Many instructional arrangements seem "contrived," but there is nothing wrong with that. It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life. — B.F. Skinner

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

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. — B.F. Skinner

When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it. — B.F. Skinner

Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools? — B.F. Skinner

I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men. — B.F. Skinner

If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down. — B.F. Skinner

A piece of music is an experience to be taken by itself. — B.F. Skinner

Nowadays, everybody fancies himself an expert in government and wants to have a say. — B.F. Skinner

I'm very pessimistic. — B.F. Skinner

I don't know whether I want to improve religion or not. I prefer to get rid of it. — B.F. Skinner

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