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.
Edward Thorndike

When, instead of merely associating some act with some situation in the animal way, we think the situation out, we have a set of particular feelings of its elements.
Edward Thorndike

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.
Edward Thorndike

The real difference between a man's scientific judgments about himself and the judgment of others about him is he has added sources of knowledge.
Edward Thorndike

It will, of course, be understood that directly or indirectly, soon or late, every advance in the sciences of human nature will contribute to our success in controlling human nature and changing it to the advantage of the common weal.
Edward Thorndike

There is no reasoning, no process of inference or comparison; there is no thinking about things, no putting two and two together; there are no ideas - the animal does not think of the box or of the food or of the act he is to perform.
Edward Thorndike

Dogs get lost hundreds of times and no one ever notices it or sends an account of it to a scientific magazine.
Edward Thorndike

Human education is concerned with certain changes in the intellects, characters and behavior of men, its problems being roughly included under these four topics: Aims, materials, means and methods.
Edward Thorndike