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" 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
Look
People
Think
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" The feeling of being interested can act as a kind of neurological signal, directing us to fruitful areas of inquiry. "
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" If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down. "
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" I don't deny the importance of genetics. However, the fact that I might be altruistic isn't because I have a gene for altruism; the fact that I do something for my children at some cost to myself comes from a history that has operated on me. "
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" 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. "
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Kind
Church
Get
" The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. "
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Will
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Environment
" I won't say that I'm an agnostic, since agnosticism maintains that one cannot know... but I'm not averse to the idea of some intelligence or some organizing force that set up the initial conditions of the universe in such a way that ultimately generated stars, planets and life. "
B. F. Skinner
Space
Stars
Intelligence
" I never really expected to be controversial. "
B. F. Skinner
Expected
Controversial
Never
" Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection? "
B. F. Skinner
Problems
Future
Environment
" The people who control the condition in which we live have no reason to think beyond more than the next five or 10 years. "
B. F. Skinner
Think
People
Control
" If you're old, don't try to change yourself, change your environment. "
B. F. Skinner
Age
You
Change
" Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. "
B. F. Skinner
Been
Learned
Forgotten
" Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. "
B. F. Skinner
Early
Society
Individual
" The environment shapes people's actions. "
B. F. Skinner
People
Shapes
Environment
" We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. "
B. F. Skinner
Teach
Books
Love
" 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. "
B. F. Skinner
Trying
Mistake
Stop
" I don't know whether I want to improve religion or not. I prefer to get rid of it. "
B. F. Skinner
Improve
Get
Religion
" I have to tell people that they are not responsible for their behavior. They're not creating it; they're not initiating anything. It's all found somewhere else. That's an awful lot to relinquish. "
B. F. Skinner
Responsible
Creating
People
" I don't think my mother and father ever had any doubts about what I was to be punished for or not. My parents come from a very strictly defined culture. "
B. F. Skinner
Mother
Culture
Think
" I remember when I was a freshman in college, I was still somewhat bothered by... worried... about religion. I remember going to this professor of philosophy and telling him that I had lost my faith. "
B. F. Skinner
College
Remember
Religion
" The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone. "
B. F. Skinner
Way
Ideal
Environment
" I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is. "
B. F. Skinner
Up
Decisions
Design
" A person who has been punished is not less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment. "
B. F. Skinner
Avoid
Way
Punishment
" I'm very pessimistic. "
B. F. Skinner
Pessimistic
Very
" Reinforcement is being right. "
B. F. Skinner
Right
Reinforcement
Being
" When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it. "
B. F. Skinner
Study
Interesting
Everything
" Great scientific contributions have been techniques. "
B. F. Skinner
Contributions
Been
Scientific
" I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men. "
B. F. Skinner
I Am
Military
Use
" The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. "
B. F. Skinner
Think
Technology
Men
" We have not yet seen what man can make of man. "
B. F. Skinner
Man
Make
Seen
" Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful. "
B. F. Skinner
Reinforcement
Used
Powerful