“#. A primary negative injunction. This may have either of two forms: (a) "Do not do so and so, or I will punish you", or (b) "If you do not do so and so, I will punish you". Here we select a context of learning based on avoidance of punishment rather than a context of reward seeking.”

— Gregory Bateson , book Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)

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Gregory Bateson 49

English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual … 1904–1980

Gregory Bateson book Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)

“It's only now that I realize that behaviour always has a context and precedents, it's what you do rather than what you are, although we often never recognise that context or understand what these precedents are.”

Irvine Welsh book Marabou Stork Nightmares

Source: Marabou Stork Nightmares

“Because the managerial élites are now so large and have such a dominant effect on our educational system, we are actually teaching most people to manage, not to think. Not only do we not reward thought, we punish it as unprofessional.”

John Ralston Saul book The Unconscious Civilization

The Unconscious Civilization (1995)

“I do what I do without hope of reward or fear of punishment. I do not require Heaven or Hell to bribe or scare me into acting decently.”

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Source: The Sparrow

“Do not hurry over punishments and do not be pleased and do not be proud of your power to punish.”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53: An order to Malik Al-Ashtar

“It is rather more noble to help people purely out of concern for their suffering than it is to help them because you think the Creator of the Universe wants you to do it, or will reward you for doing it, or will punish you for not doing it. The problem with this linkage between religion and morality is that it gives people bad reasons to help other human beings when good reasons are available.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris, Beyond Belief 2006 conference
2000s

“743. As Virtue is its own Reward, so Vice is its own Punishment.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“O God! Whatever punishment you inflict upon me, do not punish me with the humiliation of being veiled from Thee.”

Sari al-Saqati (772–867) Iraqi sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam, p. 43

“If you're going to do something wrong, do it big, because the punishment is the same either way.”

Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967) American actress, singer, model

Source: On Being Blonde (2004), p. 79

“The wicked do not fear God from any unwillingness to offend him, provided they could do so with impunity. … But believers, as has been said, dread the offense even more than the punishment.”

John Calvin book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 2, Section 27, p. 480
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

“#. A primary negative injunction. This may have either of two forms: (a) "Do not do so and so, or I will punish you", or (b) "If you do not do so and so, I will punish you". Here we select a context of learning based on avoidance of punishment rather than a context of reward seeking.”

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Gregory Bateson 49

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