B.F. Skinner has been quoted all over the place on the internet (e.g. PsychologyDegreeGuide) to say
Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything
I am starting to think he didn't as I am yet to find a reference to where he said it. The nearest I have found is
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in, and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (Watson, 1925, p. 82)
I asked about this in Psychology.SE, and although the answers indicate that Skinner possibly did not say this, it is not definitive as it is possible he said it verbaly and not in writing.
Robert Charles Lee, BSc (Hons) Psych & Stats, 1981, Univ. of London did state that it
seems to have come from a TV interview in the 1960s and reused in an Open University (UK) programme in the 1970s and '80s.
I have yet to find this, so does anyone here know of the interview?
If not, did Skinner really say "Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything" somewhere else? If so, where?
References
Watson, J. B. (1925). Behaviorism. New York: Norton.