473 Quotes by B. F. Skinner

We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

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.

If you’re old, don’t try to change yourself, change your environment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word ‘admire’ then means ‘marvel at.’

The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior – verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt. It is not some mysterious process responsible for behavior but the very behavior itself in all the complexity of its controlling relations.