Quotes from work
Walden Two

Walden Two
B.F. Skinner

Walden Two is a utopian novel written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, first published in 1948. In its time, it could have been considered science fiction, since science-based methods for altering people's behavior did not yet exist. Such methods are now known as applied behavior analysis.

B.F. Skinner photo

“Nowadays, everybody fancies himself an expert in government and wants to have a say.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Walden Two (1948), p. 95.

B.F. Skinner photo

“We are only just beginning to understand the power of love because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of force and aggression.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is possible, and blaming our failure on being born the wrong way.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“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 this tendency doesn't die out, it's wiped out.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

B.F. Skinner photo

“A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

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