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.
The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.
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.
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.
Loyalty is a feature in a boy’s character that inspires boundless hope.
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.
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.
The patrol system leads each boy to see that he has some individual responsibility for the good of his patrol.
Success in training the boy depends largely on the Scoutmaster’s own personal example.
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?
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.”
If a man cannot make his point to keen boys in ten minutes, he ought to be shot!
After forming a cadet corps of boys for assisting as noncombatants during a military campaign in 1900: We then made the discovery that boys, when trusted and relied on, were just as capable and reliable as men.
It is the Patrol System that makes the Troop, and all Scouting for that matter, a real co-operative matter.
Sunday is a day of rest. Loafing is not rest.
The secret of getting successful work out of your trained men lies in one nutshell – in the clearness of the instructions they receive.
Young men, of course, don’t want to be guided by old back numbers, but at the same time I know that in my own case I gained a lot by studying the characters of the chiefs under whom I served from time to time. Lord Wolseley, for instance, said: “Use your common sense rather than book instructions.”
To get a hold on boys you must be their friend.
Football is a grand game for developing a lad physically and also morally, for he learns to play with good temper and unselfishness, to play in his place, and to play the game, and these are the best of training for any game of life.
Leave this world a little better than you found it.
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.