Robert Baden-Powell Quotes - Page 2

The first step to this end is to develop peace and goodwill within our borders, by training our youth of both sexes to its practice as their habit of life, so that the jealousies of town against town, class against class and sect against sect no longer exist; and then to extend this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our neighbours.

The Scoutmaster guides the boy in the spirit of an older brother... He has simply to be a boy-man, that is: (1) He must have the boy spirit in him: and must be able to place himself in the right plane with his boys as a first step. (2) He must realise the needs, outlooks and desires of the different ages of boy life. (3) He must deal with the individual boy rather than with the mass. (4) He then needs to promote a corporate spirit among his individuals to gain the best results.

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.

Trust should be the basis for all our moral training.

When you want a thing done, 'Don't do it yourself' is a good motto for Scoutmasters.

The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.

Sunday is a day of rest. Loafing is not rest.

The patrol system leads each boy to see that he has some individual responsibility for the good of his patrol.

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.

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.

We should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at one's country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with others... Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead our country into comradeship with...the other nations of the world.

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.

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.

It is risky to order a boy not to do something; it immediately opens to him the adventure of doing it.

Loyalty is a feature in a boy's character that inspires boundless hope.

Almost any biography will have its useful suggestions for making life a success, but none better or more unfailing than the biography of Christ.

Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I'll show you a poorly uniformed leader.

I have known lots of millionaires who were not happy men; they had not got all they wanted and therefore had failed to find success in life. A Singalese proverb says: "He who is happy is rich, but it does not follow that he who is rich is happy." The really rich man is the man who has fewest wants.

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?

It is the Patrol System that makes the Troop, and all Scouting for that matter, a real co-operative matter.

See things from the boy's point of view.

The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.

If a man cannot make his point to keen boys in ten minutes, he ought to be shot!

Mind you, I have had in my sojourn on earth as good a time of it as any man, so I can speak with some knowledge. A writer in the Manchester Guardian who is unknown to me lately described me as "the richest man in the world." That sounds a pretty big order, but when I come to think it out I believe he is not far wrong. A rich man is not necessarily a man with a whole pot of money but a man who is really happy. And I am that.

I have often urged my young friends, when faced with an adversary, to "play polo" with him; i.e., not to go at him bald-headed but to ride side by side with him and gradually edge him off your track. Never lose your temper with him. If you are in the right there is no need to, if you are in the wrong you can't afford to.