B.F. Skinner

The way in which we think about the causes of human behavior has changed in a way that suggests that we are at an early stage of a scientific revolution.

A person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him.

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

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

Man is a machine in the sense that he is a complex system behaving in lawful ways, but the complexity is extraordinary.

The problem is not to get students to ask questions, but to get them to ask interesting questions.

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 to build a car is not to put a man in it and tell him to push.

I did not attack 'free will.' I attacked a traditional concept of 'free will' which is no longer tenable.

The future of man is not in the stars but in the control of his own behavior.

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

Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.

The only way to avoid trouble is to avoid living.

No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby is an inexhaustible source of motivation—for itself.

The highest possible achievement is to be able to live for the present moment, fully and completely.

A first principle of behavior is that it is shaped by its consequences.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

If we are to solve the problems that face us, we must get rid of the notion that we are independent agents, free to do as we please.

The environment not only goads or releases, it selects.

We are moving toward a world in which the word 'freedom' will become obsolete.