Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B. F. Skinner, (1904–90) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
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Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Leadership, Influence
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Learning, Education
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
Topics: Failure
The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Consequences
We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Book
Physics does not change the nature of the world it studies, and no science of behavior can change the essential nature of man, even though both sciences yield technologies with a vast power to manipulate the subject matters.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Manners, Behavior
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Civilization, Society
On artificial intelligence: the real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
—B. F. Skinner
Topics: Thoughts, Thinking, Intelligence, Computers
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