Mark Steyn Quotes

The object of rewards is to encourage; that of punishments, to prevent. If rewards are high, then what the ruler wants will be quickly effected; if punishments are heavy, what he does not want will be swiftly prevented.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

Two things rule the world -- reward and punishment.

There are two means by which states are maintained in their weal and greatness--reward and penalty: the one for the good, the other for the bad. And, if the distribution of these two be faulty, nothing else is to be expected than the inevitable ruin of the state... .

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

I have a reward-and-punishment system: If I have done this much work, then I can play video games this long. It gives my day structure.

What motivates most people to change their behavior is consequences. No consequences? No behavior modification.

I am for a huge, huge tent that espouses conservative principles.

I'm a very straight-laced, conservative news kind of guy.

We need to understand the difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is what you do to someone; discipline is what you do for someone.

For some reason, we stopped getting gold stars at some age. It's time to bring them back.

We have to stop rewarding bad behavior.

The only way to fight terrorism is to fight it, not to reward it…. When terror receives one victory, terror seeks other victories.

All we can do is apply the physical stimuli which we have at our disposal to bring about a change of mind in these recalcitrant persons. Of this you may be sure: we shall continue to operate on the Italian donkey at both ends, with a carrot and a stick.

The Republican party is not a party of conservative ideology. It is a party of conservative clients. Whenever possible the ideology will be invoked as a justification for taking care of clients' needs. When the two are in conflict, the conservative principles must be discarded and the clients are served.

The conservative principles are applicable to the to the most diverse situations.

Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman's tool is values; the bureaucrat's tool is fear.

The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.

You've got to change incentives for good behavior as opposed to just disincentivizing bad behavior.

As an ideology - and certainly as a political identity - conservatism is less popular than the very principles and values it stands for.

Many of us, of course, have children, and I think that the type of country that we are going to leave in our wake by rewarding bad behavior... is not a better handoff to the next generation and generation after that.

I've had a very long career of being conservative.

If you like being patted on the back for the good times you have to be prepared to take the bad times.

Suspensions convey the critical message to students and parents that certain behavior is inconsistent with being a member of the school community. Pretend suspensions, in which a student is allowed to remain in the school community, do not convey that message.

I love giving myself and my clients gold stars every day that they've completed a workout - it feels really good.