I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.

Behavior is determined by its consequences.

The extent to which human aggression exemplifies innate tendencies is not clear.

The severest trial of oppression is the constant outrage which one suffers at the thought of the oppressor. What Jesus discovered was how to avoid the inner devastations. His technique was to practice the opposite emotion... a man may not get his freedom or possessions back, but he's less miserable. It's a difficult lesson.

Fame is also won at the expense of others. Even the well-deserved honors of the scientist or man of learning are unfair to many persons of equal achievements who get none. When one man gets a place in the sun, the others are put in a denser shade. From the point of view of the whole group there's no gain whatsoever, and perhaps a loss.

The problem of far greater importance remains to be solved. Rather than build a world in which we shall all live well, we must stop building one in which it will be impossible to live at all.

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.