B.F. Skinner

The problem is not to adjust people to the world they live in, but to adjust the world to the people who live in it.

Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

The free man is an illusion.

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 what is true of the baby is true of the scientist.

The ideal of a body of knowledge to which all men can contribute and which all men can use has been the great motivating force of science.

The highest possible achievement is to be happy.

The world is not a dangerous place because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

Man is a machine, but a machine in the sense that a tree is a machine. What he does, he does because of his structure, not because of some indwelling agent called a 'will.'

The future of mankind depends on the application of behavioral science.

A sense of humor is a sense of proportion.

The only way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.

The way to build a better world is not to create better people, but to create better environments.

We are not free to choose our choices.

Contingencies of reinforcement are everywhere.

The function of a good teacher is to make himself progressively unnecessary.

The environment determines the behavior of the individual, not some inner 'will.'

When you have a choice to make, but you don't make it, then that is a choice in itself.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

The only way to save the world is to change the way we behave.

The organism is at the mercy of its environment.