I've often said that my rats have taught me much more than I've taught them.

If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.

We have seen that in certain respects operant reinforcement resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement.

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

Something doing every minute' may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.

Overcrowding can be corrected only by inducing people not to crowd, and the environment will continue to deteriorate until polluting practices are abandoned.

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.