Robert Baden-Powell > Quotes

“If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.

I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn come to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "Be Prepared" in this way, to live happy and to die happy—stick to your Scout promise always—even after you have ceased to be a boy—and God help you do it.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.”
― Sir Robert Baden-Powell

“A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“Leave this world a little better than you found it.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“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.”
― Sir Robert Baden-Powell

“The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.”
― Sir Robert Baden-Powell

“The secret of getting
successful work out of your trained men lies in one nutshell—in
the clearness of the instructions they receive.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again.”
― Lord Baden-Powell or Thomas H. Palmer or WC Fields

“If it were not for the depressing heat and the urgency of the work, one could sit down and laugh to tears at the absurdity of the thing, and under the circumstances it is a little wearing. But our motto is the old west coast proverb, Softly, softly, catchee monkey; in other words, don't flurry; patience gains the day.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“Boy Scout is not merely to give you fun and adventure but that, like the backwoodsmen, explorers, and frontiersmen whom you are following, you will be fitting yourself to help your country and to be of service to other people who may be in need of help. That is what the best men are out to do.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Robert Baden-Powell: Scouting for Boys, The Original

“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.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“we aim for the practice of Christianity in their everyday life and dealings, and not merely the profession of its theology on Sundays.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Robert Baden-Powell: Scouting for Boys, The Original

“Be Prepared”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

“Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.

Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

“Si la vida fuera siempre fácil, sería insípida”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“If God made the boy a creature of extreme and restless energy, with an inquisitive and eager mind, a sensitive little heart, and a romantic imagination, it is up to you (Cub leaders) to make full use of these insted of crushing them.”
― Robert Baden-Powell

“The worst map-readers I have come across are the Italians.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids To Scouting: for N.C.O.s and Men

“Tyhle kapitoly vás zklamou, pokud si myslíte, že v nich najdete úplný a přesný návod, jak vést skautský oddíl. Chtěl bych tu jen ukázat a nabídnout základní směr cesty k úspěchu a zdůvodnit jej.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training

“Kdyby rybář napichoval na háček jako návnadu něco, co chutná jemu, asi by na to moc ryb nechytil. Proto užívá jako návnadu to, co chutná rybám.
S chlapci je to stejné. Kdybyste jim kázali o tom, co sami považujete za po- vznášející, nechytili byste je.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training

“Tisíce chlapců ztrácíme každý den tím, že je necháváme vyrůstat v bezcharakterní, neužitečné lidi.
Mnozí z nich by mohli být zachráněni, kdyby vyrůstali v dobrém prostředí a v dobrých podmínkách právě v tom životním období, kdy jsou vnímaví a schopní změny.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training

“James E. Russell z učitelské koleje Kolumbijské univerzity ve státu New York. Napsal:
„Skautský program je záležitost mužů upravená pro potřeby kluků. Chlapce přitahuje ne proto, že je chlapec, ale proto, že v něm může jednat jako skutečný muž...”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training

“Ukažte mi nedbale krojovaný oddíl a já „vypátrám“, že ani jeho vůdce nemá kroj v pořádku. Myslete na to, až se budete do kroje oblékat!
Dáváte svým chlapcům příklad a pokud budete mít kroj pěkně upravený, od- razí se to i na vašich skautech.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training

“Procurai deixar este mundo um pouco melhor do que o encontrastes e, quando chegar a hora de morrerdes, podeis morrer felizes…”
― Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

“Uma dificuldade deixa logo de o ser, assim que te rires dela e a enfrentares.”
― Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

“Watch that lad going down the street, his eyes are looking far out. Is his vision across the prairie or over the grey-backed seas? At any rate, it isn't here. Don't I know it!”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Scoutmastership, A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training

“When is there a boy, even in these materialistic times, to whom the call of the wild and the open road does not appeal? Maybe it is the primitive instinct, anyway it is there. With that key a great door may be unlocked, if it is only to admit fresh air and sunshine into lives that were otherwise grey.
The heroes of the wild, the frontiersmen and explorers, the rovers of the seas, the airmen of the clouds, are pied pipers to the boys. Where they lead the boys will follow and these will dance to their tune when it sings the song of manliness and pluck, of adventure and high endeavors of efficiency and skill, of cheerful sacrifice of self for others. There's meat in this for the boy. There's soul in it.”
― Baden-Powell Robert Baden-Powell

“Když se snažíme vychovat z chlapců dobré lidi, děláme to částečně pro dobro své země.”
― Robert Baden-Powell, Aids to Scoutmastership: A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training