“What lies behind us and before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

   –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Were you aware that Boy Scout Alumni include:

• 63% of Air Force Academy graduates
• 68% of West Point graduates
• 70% of Annapolis graduates
• 72% of Rhodes Scholars
• 85% of FBI agents
• 65% of college graduates
• 65% of US Congress
• 85% of airline pilots
• 85% of student council presidents
• 89% of senior class presidents
• 71% of football captains
• 65% of basketball captains
• 88% of school newspaper editors
• 77% of editors of school annuals
• 75% of business managers of school publications
• 80% of junior class presidents
• 26 of the first 29 astronauts were Boy Scouts
• 11 of the 12 who walked on the moon were Scouts
• Of the 214 pilots and scientists selected as astronauts since 1959, more than 125 were Scouts or have been active in Scouting: 33 Eagle Scouts, 21 Life Scouts, 12 Star Scouts, 19 First Class Scouts, 13 Second Class Scouts, 8 Tenderfoot Scouts, 16 Cub Scouts, and 5 with unknown ranks.

Baden-Powell’s last message to scouts, penned in 1941:

 ”Try to leave the 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.”  

A few eclectic thoughts collected over time….

• The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
• Life is for living, love is for giving.
• A child is like a book waiting to be written.
• Time is life. It is irreversible and irreplaceable. To waste your time is to waste your life, but to master your time is to master your life and make the most of it.
• Sow a thought reap an action. Sow an action reap a habit. Sow a habit reap a character. Sow a character reap a destiny.
• Quod Serveris Metes (As ye sow, so shall ye reap)
• Scientia est Potentia (knowledge is power)
• Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What, you, too? I thought I was the only one.”
• A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. – Gandhi
• TEAM = Together everyone accomplishes more.
• The only thing I leave behind is my footprints.
• Golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
• Golden rule: 1.6180339 – All things in life are related to math/physics.
• A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single footstep.
• Behold the wise turtle, who only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.
• Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. -Leonardo diVinci
• Our life is frettered away by detail. Simlify, Simlify. – Henry David Thoreau
• The more you know, the less you need. – Brian Plumb
• Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought. Chinese proverb
• Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The price of discipline is always less than the cost of regret.
• Pain is just weakness leaving your body.
• Act like you’ve been there before…or like you are going to be there again.
• You’ve got to skate to where the puck is going to go.
• Chicks dig scars, pain is temporary, glory lasts forever.
• Don’t talk to the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
• Character is easier to keep than recover.
• Character is how you act when no one is looking.
• A good carpenter never complains about his tools.