August 2021
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 3: Dignity. Quote 11
We magnify the credit due us by exposing ourselves to conditions which ordinarily generate unworthy behavior while refraining from acting in unworthy ways. We seek out conditions under which behavior has been positively reinforced and then refuse to engage in the behavior . . . (p. 50)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 3: Dignity. Quote 9
We attempt to gain credit by disguising or concealing control. The television speaker uses a prompter which is out of sight, and the lecturer glances only surreptitiously at his notes, and both then appear to be speaking either from memory or extemporaneously, when they are in fact —and less commendably—reading. (p. 49)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 2: Dignity. Quote 1
Any evidence that a person’s behavior may be attributed to external circumstances seems to threaten his dignity or worth. We are not inclined to give a person credit for achievements which are in fact due to forces over which he has no control. (p. 44)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Chapter 2: Freedom. Quote 14
Man’s struggle for freedom is not due to a will to be free, but to certain behavioral processes characteristic of the human organism, the chief effect of which is the avoidance of or escape from so-called “aversive” features of the environment. (p. 42)