Skinner’s Quote of the Day

As long as only a few pupils learn much of what is taught, we do not worry about uniformity or regimentation. (p. 31)

By admiring the student for knowledge and blaming him for ignorance, we escape some of the responsibility of teaching him. (p. 30)

The individual is especially likely to be praised, admired, or loved when he acts for the group in the face of great danger, for example, or sacrifices himself or his…

The practice of admiration is an important part of a culture, because behavior which is otherwise inclined to be weak can be set up and maintained with its help. (27)

We hesitate to admit, even to ourselves, that we are engaged in control, and we may refuse to control, even when this would be helpful, for fear of criticism. (p.…

Now, the control of human behavior has always been unpopular. Any undisguised effort to control usually arouses emotional reactions. (p. 26)

Science is steadily increasing our power to influence, change, mold—in a word, control—human behavior. (p. 25)

A rejection of science at this time, in a desperate attempt to preserve a loved but inaccurate conception of man, would represent an unworthy retreat in man’s continuing effort to…

Unless there is some unseen virtue in ignorance, our growing understanding of human behavior will make it all the more feasible to design a world adequate to the needs of…

A world in which education is so successful that one is naturally right [intellectually and morally] is criticized because it provides for no heroism in transcending an inadequate environment. (p.…

We must continue to experiment in cultural design, as nature has already experimented, testing the consequences as we go. . . . Eventually, the practices which make for the greatest…

A technique need not be immediately objectionable to the controllee to engender counter-control. The gambler, for instance, is possibly the last person to ask for legal or moral restrictions on…

A later type of popular hero is the cheat, who outwits the strong man by misrepresentation and deceit . . . But the cheat, eventually, is almost as objectionable as…

In primitive literature, the hero is often the man who can whip everyone else in the group in open combat. He controls with the techniques of the bully . .…

In civilized countries, the more powerful controlling techniques have eventually been contained by a sort of ethical counter-control, which prevents exploitation by those in a position to use them. (p.…

In turning to the external conditions which shape and maintain in the behavior of men, while questioning the reality of inner qualities and faculties to which human achievements were once…

Far from being a threat to the tradition of Western democracy, the growth of a science of man is a consistent and probably inevitable part of it. (p. 17)

If we neglect the conditions which produce democratic behavior, it is useless to try to maintain a democratic form of government. (p. 17)

It will be a long time before the world can dispense with heroes and hence with the cultural practice of admiring heroism, but we move in that direction whenever we…

In admiring intellectual and moral heroism and unrewarding labor, and in rejecting a world in which these would be uncommon, we are simply demonstrating our own cultural conditioning. (p. 15)

Praise and blame are cultural practices which have been adjuncts of the prevailing system of control in Western democracy. (p. 15)

We cannot reconcile traditional and scientific views by agreeing upon what is to be admired or condemned. The question is whether anything is to be so treated. (p. 15)

It is reasonable to look forward to a time when man will seldom ”have” to do anything, although he may show interest, energy, imagination, and productivity far beyond the level…

“Having to be good” is an excellent example of an expendable honorific . . . In a culture which did not resort to punishment we should never "have" to do…

. . . if really effective techniques are available, we cannot avoid the problem of design simply by preferring the status quo. At what point should education be made deliberately…

Suppose . . . that we someday possess such effective educational techniques that every student will in fact be put in possession of all the behavior specified in a syllabus.…

The experimental method is superior to simple observation just because it multiplies “accidents” in a systematic coverage of the possibilities. (p. 12)

Those who reject the scientific conception of man must, to be logical, oppose the methods of science as well. (p. 11)

. . . it is only through . . . counter-control that we have achieved what we call peace—a condition in which men are not permitted to control each other…

Slowly, and as yet imperfectly, we have worked out an ethical and governmental design in which the strong man is not allowed to use the power deriving from his strength…

The danger of the misuse of power is possibly greater than ever. It is not allayed by disguising the facts. We cannot make wise decisions if we continue to pretend…

We are all controlled by the world in which we live, and part of that world has been and will be constructed by men. The question is this: Are we…

Education grown too powerful is rejected as propaganda or “brain-washing,” while really effective persuasion is described as “undue influence,” “demagoguery,” “seduction” and so on. (p. 10)

The appeal to reason has certain advantages over the authoritative command. A threat of punishment, no matter how subtle, generates emotional reactions and tendencies to escape or revolt. (p. 9)

A philosophy which has been appropriate to one set of political exigencies will defeat its purpose if, under other circumstances, it prevents us from applying to human affairs the science…

The ultimate achievement of democracy may be long deferred unless we emphasize the real aims rather than the verbal devices of democratic thinking. (p. 8)

Every discovery of an event which has a part in shaping a man’s behavior seems to leave so much the less to be credited to the man himself; and as…

To confuse and delay the improvement of cultural practices by quibbling about the word improve is itself not a useful practice. Let us agree, to start with, that health is…

Scientists themselves have unsuspectingly agreed that there are two kinds of useful prepositions about nature—facts and value judgments—and that science must confine itself to “what is,” leaving “what ought to…

The simple fact is that man is able, and now as never before, to lift himself by his own bootstraps. In achieving control of the world of which he is…

Just as biographers and critics look for external influences to account for the traits and achievements of the men they study, so science ultimately explains behavior in terms of “causes”…

Although Western democracy created the conditions responsible for the rise of modern science, it is now evident that it may never fully profit from that achievement. (p. 3)

The B. F. Skinner Foundation wishes you happy, healthy, and productive 2021! Skinner's Quote of the Day will return in January.

I think the experimental analysis of behavior can best proceed as it started, until the control of the behavior of an organism in an experimental space is very nearly total.…

It is unlikely that a remote consequence of any kind can reinforce operant behavior in the absence of mediating events. (p. 200)

Choice is something to be explained, not to be used in the analysis of basic processes. (p. 199)

To return to choice and especially to regard a single response as a choice between responding and not responding are, I think, steps backward. (p. 199)

When W.H. Heron and I built our twenty-four-box Behemoth, I wrote to Tolman that we had put in two levers and hoped to get around soon to some problems involving…

The contrived contingencies of both education and therapy must eventually be terminated. Teacher or therapist must withdraw from the life of the student or client before teaching or therapy can…

In general, by allowing natural contingencies to take control whenever possible we generate behavior that is more likely to be appropriate to any occasion upon which it may occur again,…