473 Quotes by B. F. Skinner

That’s all teaching is; arranging contingencies which bring changes in behavior.

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.

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.

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.

Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli.

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.

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.

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.

I don’t believe in God, so I’m not afraid of dying.