We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SkinnerRead
Men build society and society builds men.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Society influences individual development while individuals contribute to the construction of society.
This quote suggests a reciprocal relationship between individuals and society where each shapes and influences the other. Men, as social beings, actively participate in constructing the structures, norms, and institutions that make up society, while simultaneously, the societal framework molds their identities, behaviors, and values, creating a dynamic interplay that is essential for the growth of both individuals and the collective.
Themes
SocietyIndividualsInfluenceDevelopmentInterdependence
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about community engagement, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of active participation in societal development.
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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That's all that counts. People being sorry. Makes you feel better; gives you a sense of dignity, and that's all that's important; a sense of dignity. And it doesn't matter if you don't care or not, either. You got to have a sense of dignity, even if you don't care, 'cause, if you don't have that, civilization's doomed.
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Re-telling the Christian story is the essence of my vocation. That has been going on since the Evangelists in one form or another.
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