“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.” ― B.F. Skinner
“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
“Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.” ― B.F. Skinner
“The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.” ― B.F. Skinner
“No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn’t die out, it’s wiped out.” ― B.F. Skinner
“Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is possible, and blaming our failure on being born the wrong way.” ― B.F. Skinner
“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.” ― B.F. Skinner
“We are only just beginning to understand the power of love because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of force and aggression.” ― B.F. Skinner
“The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.” ― B.F. Skinner
“What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.” ― B.F. Skinner
“At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.” ― B.F. Skinner
“not everyone is willing to defend a position of ‘not knowing.’ There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.” ― B.F. Skinner