B.F. Skinner

Psychology American 1904 – 1990 245 quotes

Most influential behaviorist, operant conditioning

Quotes by B.F. Skinner

We are not victims of our environment, but products of it.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1971

The future is not something we enter, it is something we create.

Skinner's Notebooks

The greatest good for the greatest number is achieved through the control of behavior.

Walden Two 1948

The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to be useful.

Skinner's Notebooks

The only way to change the world is to change behavior.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1971

The individual is not important; the culture is.

Walden Two 1948

Freedom is an illusion; control is inevitable.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1971

Dignity is a concept that interferes with effective control.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1971

The ultimate question is not what kind of world we want, but what kind of people we want.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1971

The only way to improve the human condition is through a technology of behavior.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1971

The way in which we think about the causes of human behavior is a product of our culture, and our culture is a product of our history.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

We are all controlled by the world in which we live, and we are all controlling the world in which we live.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

The problem is not to get rid of the control, but to make it effective.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

Man is not free because he is not controlled by the environment, but because he is controlled by the environment in a particular way.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

The concept of 'mind' is an explanatory fiction.

Science and Human Behavior

The way to build a better world is not to get rid of the bad people, but to get rid of the bad conditions.

Walden Two

We are not free to choose; we are free to be chosen.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

The environment not only selects behavior, it also shapes it.

Science and Human Behavior

The concept of 'dignity' is a barrier to effective social change.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity

Punishment is not the way to teach.

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