Edward Thorndike Quotations

Some statements concern the conscious states of the animal, what he is to himself as an inner life; others concern his original and acquired ways of response, his behavior, what he is an outside observer

The un-conscious distortion of the facts is almost harmless compared to the unconscious neglect of an animal's mental life until it verges on the unusual and marvelous.

The restriction of studies of human intellect and character to studies of conscious states was not without influence on a scientific studies of animal psychology.

To the intelligent man with an interest in human nature it must often appear strange that so much of the energy of the scientific world has been spent on the study of the body and so little on the study of the mind.

He who learns and runs away, lives to learn another day.

The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our reactions to the circumstances of life, so that we may secure pleasure, the symptom of welfare.

This growth in the number, speed of formation, permanence, delicacy and complexity of associations possible for an animal reaches its acme in the case of man.

Amongst the minds of animals that of man leads, not as a demigod from another planet, but as a king from the same race.

The intellectual evolution of the race consists in an increase in the number, delicacy, complexity, permanence and speed of formation of such associations.

Just as the science and art of agriculture depend upon chemistry and botany, so the art of education depends upon physiology and psychology.