Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by B.F. Skinner

Quote by B.F. Skinner

“The majority of people don't want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. What they ask for is merely some assurance that they will be decently provided for.”

Quote by B.F. Skinner

Work

WALDEN TWO

Walden Two is a novel that delves into the concept of creating an ideal society through controlled social experiments. The story follows a group of individuals who live in a planned community designed to embody the principles of a perfect society. The book examines the challenges and successes of this utopian endeavor, offering a critical look at the potential and limitations of human society. more

Author

B.F. Skinner

Browse famous quotes and profile details for B.F. Skinner. more

You May Also Like

“The thing I am here to say to you is this: that it is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality, unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is a lie to say that dogma does not matter; it matters enormously. It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offer Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple and consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, exacting, and complex doctrine, steeped in a drastic and uncompromising realism. And it is fatal to imagine that everyone knows quite well what Christianity is and needs only a little encouragement to practice it. The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion what the Church teaches about God or man or society or the person of Jesus Christ.”

“Political historian Barouth Regorab had likened the difference between a planetary government and the Galactic Senate to that between a rural community and a metropolis: “When a person depends upon their neighbor for assistance during the harvest—when strangers are few and familial ties bind the farmer to the freighter captain—the greatest danger is shunning or exile. Mollifying your peers becomes a matter of survival. You have an incentive to iron out differences, or if necessary to bury any radical beliefs that would put you at odds with your community. “In a city of millions, however, a person may build a tailor-made community inside the larger organism. Anger your neighbor and you may move in with a friend. Become an outcast among your co-workers and you may take a job with a competitor. Diverse arts and philosophies may flourish without the flattening effect of more tight-knit communities, and differences may be celebrated. Yet a lack of common ties can also cause neighbors to see one another as rivals. Ideological opponents can be dismissed without need for engagement. And good people may slip through the cracks, lost in the chaos and written off as someone else’s problem.”

“There is a famous Cambridge toast that I have always liked: “God bless the higher mathematics, and may they never be of the slightest use to anybody”.”

“¿Vemos ahora las consecuencias del modo que hemos decidido concebir al éxito? Cuando lo personalizamos tan profundamente, omitimos ocasiones de elevar a otros a un peldaño superior. Hacemos las reglas que frustran los logros. Amortizamos a la gente antes de tiempo como fracasados. Sentimos demasiado respeto por los que tienen éxito y demasiado poco por los que no. Por encima de todo nos hemos vuelto demasiado pasivos. Pasamos por alto el papel tan grande que desempeñamos — y este "nosotros" significa la "sociedad"— a la hora de determinar quién lo consigue y quién no.”

“So, I'm just joining a group I know nothing about?” Abby asked. “Yep! All you need to know is how to use a gun or a knife, unless you know how to already.” he said, and looked down at her gun clipped on her belt. She followed his look. “Umm yes, I know how to use both but why?” she asked “Like I said, not important, but what is important is, 'Will you join the society?”