B. F. Skinner Punish Quotations

You hate to give up goals right at the half, but Ben made a great play over there, and we played dumb. We had a couple of chances (to clear the ball) and he punished us for it.

I don't think my mother and father ever had any doubts about what I was to be punished for or not. My parents come from a very strictly defined culture.

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.

Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack-vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy-a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products.

Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.

Except when physically restrained, a person is least free or dignified when he is under threat of punishment, and unfortunately most people often are.

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