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. - B. F. Skinner

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.

A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he's often sure he can find one. And that's a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.

Now that we know how positive reinforcement works, and why negative doesn’t, we can be more deliberate and hence more successful, in our cultural design. We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled…nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That’s the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcement — there’s no restraint and no revolt. By a careful design, we control not the final behavior, but the inclination to behave — the motives, the desires, the wishes. The curious thing is that in that case the question of freedom never arises.