Top 42 Quotes by B. F. Skinner

About B. F. Skinner

These are some quotes by American author B. F. Skinner Psychologist, who lived between March 20, 1904 and August 18, 1990.

The environment shapes people's actions.

The environment shapes people's actions.

B. F. Skinner

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

B. F. Skinner

I would be opposed to any kind of totalitarian control.

I would be opposed to any kind of totalitarian control.

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.

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 think my novel, 'Walden Two,' has made people stop and look at the culture they have inherited and wonder if it is the last word or whether it can be changed.

I think my novel, 'Walden Two,' has made people stop and look at the culture they have inherited and wonder if it is the last word or whether it can be changed.

B. F. Skinner

Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.

Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.

B. F. Skinner

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

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

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

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

Religions work for their own aggrandizement - strengthen the church and so on - and they use reinforcers of one kind or another to get obedience and so on from their communicants.

Religions work for their own aggrandizement - strengthen the church and so on - and they use reinforcers of one kind or another to get obedience and so on from their communicants.

B. F. Skinner

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