We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SkinnerRead
Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of fostering happiness and skillfulness in individuals for a productive society.
B.F. Skinner highlights the essential traits that contribute to an individual's well-being and the overall functionality of society. By stating that individuals should be happy, informed, skillful, well-behaved, and productive, Skinner reflects on the importance of nurturing these qualities in people to ensure personal fulfillment and collective progress.
Themes
HappinessSkillfulnessProductivityWell-BeingBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal development, one might quote this to encourage positivity.
More from B. F. Skinner
All quotes βEach of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
B. F. SkinnerRead
No theory changes what it is a theory about; man remains what he has always been.
B. F. SkinnerRead
I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.
B. F. SkinnerRead
The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.
B. F. SkinnerRead
Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
B. F. SkinnerRead
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My formula for happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal.
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You get to a certain age where you prepare yourself for happiness. Sometimes you never remember to actually get happy.
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You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous.
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