Robert Baden-Powell Quotes
We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.
Try to leave this world a little better than you found it and, when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best
No one can pass through life, any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in finding their way.
Look wide, beyond your immediate surroundings and limits, and you see things in their right proportion. Look above the level of things around you and see a higher aim and possibility to your work.
A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room.
Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.
Happiness is not mere pleasure, not the outcome of wealth. It is the result of active work rather than passive enjoyment of pleasure.
A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens.
If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.
Girls should be brought up to be comrades and helpers, not to be dolls. They should take a real and not a visionary share in the welfare of the nation.
Happiness is open to all, since, when you boil it down, it merely consists of contentment with what you have got and doing what you can for other people.
The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.
An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.
The secret of sound education is to get each pupil to learn for himself, instead of instructing him by driving knowledge into him on a stereotyped system.
The uniform makes for brotherhood, since when universally adopted it covers up all differences of class and country.
It is risky to order a boy not to do something; it immediately opens to him the adventure of doing it.
Success in training the boy depends largely on the Scoutmaster's own personal example.
Almost any biography will have its useful suggestions for making life a success, but none better or more unfailing than the biography of Christ.
O God, help me to win, but in thy wisdom if thou willest me not to win, then O God, make me a good loser.
Yet one more item is needed to complete success, and that is the rendering of service to others in the community. Without this the mere satisfaction of selfish desire does not reach the top notch.
When you want a thing done, 'Don't do it yourself' is a good motto for Scoutmasters.
The patrol system leads each boy to see that he has some individual responsibility for the good of his patrol.
A thing that many young fellows don't seem to realism at first is that success depends on oneself and not on a kindly fate, nor on the interest of powerful friends.
Your natural inclination is to preach and to warn other travellers of snags in the path, but isn't it better to signal to them some of the joys by the way which they might otherwise miss?
In a difficult situation one never-failing guide is to ask yourself: "What would Christ have done?" Then do it-as nearly as you can.
Make good scouts of yourselves, become good rifle shots so that if it becomes necessary that you defend your families and your country that you can do it.
If a man cannot make his point to keen boys in ten minutes, he ought to be shot!
It is the Patrol System that makes the Troop, and all Scouting for that matter, a real co-operative matter.
As Sir Henry Newbolt sums it up: "The real test of success is whether a life has been a happy one and a happy giving one."
The secret of getting successful work out of your trained men lies in one nutshell—in the clearness of the instructions they receive.
A man carries out suggestions the more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.
"Softly, softly, catchee monkey," is the West African rendering of a very valuable precept. An awful lot of men fail through lack of patient persistence.
In Scouting, a boy is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed.
Swimming has its educational value - mental, moral, and physical - in giving you a sense of mastery over an element, and of power of saving life, and in the development of wind and limb.
Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.
Development of outlook naturally begins with a respect for God... Reverence to God and reverence for one's neighbor and reverence for oneself as a servant of God.