Reward And Punishment Quotes

• Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

  Zhuangzi

  Inspirational, Education, Teacher

  Zhuangzi (1927). “Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzŭ”

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• If people are good because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

  Albert Einstein

  Im Sorry, Atheist, Fear

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• Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature

  John Locke

  Philosophical, Punishment, Evil

  Some Thoughts Concerning Education sec. 54 (1693)

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• Rewards and punishments, to speak frankly, are the desk of the soul, that is, a means of enslaving a child's spirit, and better suited to provoke than to prevent deformities.

  Maria Montessori

  Children, Mean, Punishment

  "The Discovery of the Child" by Maria Montessori, Ch. 1, 1948.

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• Unconditional parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason.

  Alfie Kohn

  Moving, Punishment, Rewards

  "Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason". Book by Alfie Kohn, March 28, 2006.

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• I had taught myself that a human being might as well look for diamond tiaras in the gutter as for rewards and punishments that were fair.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Punishment, Gutters, Looks

  Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.153, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Atheist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.328, Princeton University Press

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• Work is not man's punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.

  George Sand

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

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• There is not eternal damnation, the only rewards and punishments are right here in this world.

  Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz

  Punishment, Damnation, World

  Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1989). “The Madman and the Nun & The Crazy Locomotive: Three Plays, Including The Water Hen”, Hal Leonard Corporation

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• Should one be shallow enough to view existence as a system of rewards and punishments, one soon learns that we pay as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats.

  Tom Robbins

  Views, Punishment, Rewards

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Jitterbug Perfume”, p.192, Bantam

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• To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Independent, Punishment, Anxiety

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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• The God understood as a father figure, who guided ultimate personal decisions, answered our prayers, and promised rewards and punishment based upon our behavior was not designed to call anyone into maturity.

  John Shelby Spong

  Prayer, Father, Maturity

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• Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards and punishments would be in vain.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Men, Choices, Would Be

  Thomas Aquinas (1997). “Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas: Volume One”, p.787, Hackett Publishing

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• We cannot escape the conclusion that because of performance in the pre-existence some of us are born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Indians, some as Negroes, some as Americans, some as Latter-day Saints. These are rewards and punishments, fully in harmony with His established policy in dealing with sinners and saints, rewarding all according to their deeds

  Mark E. Petersen

  Punishment, Chinese, Saint

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• The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion, the being, and attributes, and providence of one Almighty God: the responsibility to him for all our actions, founded upon moral freedom and accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues-these these never can be a matter of indifference in any well-ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how any civilized society can exist without them.

  Joseph Story

  Responsibility, Punishment, Community

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.699

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• The good of the governed is the end, and rewards and punishments are the means, of all government. The government of the supreme and all-perfect Mind, over all his intellectual creation, is by proportioning rewards to piety and virtue, and punishments to disobedience and vice. ... The joys of heaven are prepared, and the horrors of hell in a future state, to render the moral government of the universe perfect and complete. Human government is more or less perfect, as it approaches nearer or diverges further from an imitation of this perfect plan of divine and moral government.

  John Adams

  Mean, Punishment, Government

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• Moral laws are set as a curb and restraint to these exorbitant desires, which they cannot be but by rewards and punishments, that will over-balance the satisfaction any one shall propose to himself in the breach of the law.

  John Locke

  Law, Punishment, Balance

  John Locke (1836). “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, p.28

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• My position concerning God is that of an agnostic.

  Albert Einstein

  Religion, Agnostic, I Believe In God

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.340, Princeton University Press

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• We are born knowing nothing and with much striving we learn but a little; yet all the while we are bound by laws that hearken to no plea of ignorance, and measure out their rewards and punishments with calm indifference. In such a state, humility is the virtue of men, and their only defense; to walk humbly with God, never doubting, whatever befall, that His will is good, and that His law is right.

  Paul Elmer More

  Ignorance, Humility, Men

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• Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

  Zhuangzi

  Motivational, Encouraging, Spiritual

  Zhuangzi, Gia-fu Feng (1974). “Chuang tsu: Inner chapters”, Vintage

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• There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

  John Quincy Adams

  Wise, Men, Sharks

  Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1848). “Letters of Mrs. Adams: The Wife of John Adams”, p.432, Boston, Wilkins, Carter,

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• I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.

  Zhuangzi

  Inspirational, Dream, Wisdom

  'Chuang Tzu' (1889, translated by H. A. Giles) ch. 2

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• Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mahomed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles.

  Benjamin Rush

  Education, Religious, Growing Up

  Benjamin Rush (1806). “Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical ...”, p.8

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• My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.

  Albert Einstein

  Law, Punishment, Ideas

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.340, Princeton University Press

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• The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.

  John Shelby Spong

  Punishment, Forever, Religion

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