B.F. Skinner

The problem of control is not whether to control, but how to control.

A behavior is not a thing, but an event.

The function of science is to discover the laws of nature.

The ultimate source of human behavior is the environment.

The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.

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

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.

The way in which a child is taught to speak is a matter of operant conditioning.

Man's power to change his environment is the key to his survival.

The problem is to get rid of the notion that the organism is the originator of its own behavior.

We are not free to choose our responses to the environment.

The environment not only 'triggers' behavior, it 'selects' it.

The strengthening of a response which results from the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus is called conditioning.

We do not act because we are free; we are free because we act.

The only way to get rid of the notion of freedom and dignity is to understand how behavior is controlled.

A scientific analysis of behavior must, I believe, assume that a person's behavior is determined by his genetic endowment and by his past and present environments.

The ultimate control of the environment lies in the hands of those who control the reinforcers.

The problem is not to abolish government but to design it.

The future of mankind depends on the extent to which we can design a culture that will survive.

We can't have a science of behavior if we insist that behavior is free.