Quotes from Baden-Powell

The aim in Nature study is to develop a realisation of God the Creator, and to infuse a sense of the beauty of Nature."

Nature study is the key activity in Scouting and Guiding.

The study of nature brings into a harmonious whole the question of the infinite, the historic and the microscopic as part of the Great Creator's work. And in these, sex and reproduction play an honoured part.

The wonder to me of all wonders is how some teachers have neglected Nature study, this easy and unfailing means of education, and have struggled to impose Biblical instruction as the first step towards getting a restless, full-spirited boy to think of higher things.

When a Wolf Cub hears the words "Nature study" his first thought is about school collections of dried leaves, but real Nature study means a great deal more than this; it means knowing about everything that is not made by man, but is created by God.

Nature study should not be the mere formal class teaching of the school, but the interested pursuit of each individual girl in that branch of it which particularly appeals to her, through practical handling and dealing with it.

The man who is blind to the beauties of Nature has missed half the pleasure of life.

A Lady Cubmaster was teaching a Cub Natural History, and asked him:

"What is a rabbit covered with - is it hair, or wool, or fur, or what".

The Cub replied: "Good gracious, Akela, haven't you ever seen a rabbit?".

God has given us a world to live in that is full of beauties and wonders and He has given us not only eyes to see them but minds to understand them, if we only have the sense to look at them in that light.

A Scout/Guide should save animals as far as possible from pain, and should not kill any animal unnecessarily, not even the smallest of God's creatures.

By continually watching animals in their natural state one gets to like them too well to shoot them. The whole sport of hunting animals lies in the woodcraft of stalking them, not in the killing.

An animal has been made by God just as you have been. He is therefore a fellowcreature. He has not the power of speaking our language, but can feel pleasure or pain just as we can, and he can feel grateful to anyone who is kind to him. A Scout is always helpful to people who are crippled or blind or deaf and dumb; so he is good also to these dumb fellow-creatures of ours.

As a Scout, you are the guardian of the woods. A Scout never damages a tree by hacking it with his knife or axe. It does not take long to fell a tree, but it takes many years to grow one, so a Scout cuts down a tree for a good reason only – not just for the sake of using his axe. For every tree felled, two should be planted."

For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the forest is at once a laboratory, a club and a temple

There's nothing like 'Being Prepared' is there, for what might seem possible, even if it may not seem probable.

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

The open-air is the real objective of Scouting and the key to its success.

The key that unlocks the spirit of the movement is the romance of woodcraft and nature lore.

Scouting is a school of citizenship through woodcraft.