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I once heard someone defend that belief by declaring that "human nature is to do as little as necessary." This prejudice is refuted not just by a few studies but the entire branch of psychology dealing with motivation. Normally, it's hard to stop happy, satisfied people from trying to learn more about themselves and the world, or from trying to do a job of which they can feel proud.

— Alfie Kohn Unconditional Parenting (2006)

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More quotes by Alfie Kohn

The value of a book about dealing with children is inversely proportional to the number of times it contains the word behavior.

Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions

Many of the familiar principles of Quality Management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.

Rewards and punishments are not opposites at all; they are two sides of the same coin. And it is a coin that does not buy very much.

It doesn't matter how motivated students are; what matters is how students are motivated

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alfie Kohn (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.