Samuel Langhorne Clemens was never a boy scout but no one has ever written more poignantly about boyhood. His contrarian, cross grained and curmudgeonly persona could not completely conceal his humanitarianism.
Here are some of his thoughts applied to the scout law:
Trustworthy
"I am different from [George] Washington; I have a higher, grander
standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won't."
Loyal
"You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's
country, not to its institutions, or its office holders. The
country is
the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is
the thing
to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are
extraneous,
they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out..."
Helpful
"Be virtuous and you will be eccentric."
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
Friendly
"I can live for two months on a good compliment."
"The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the
wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the
right."
Courteous
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
Kind
"The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession--what
there is of it."
Obedient
"Always obey your parents, when they are present.
Most parents think they know more than you do; and you can
generally make
more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your
own better judgment."
Cheerful
"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up."
Thrifty
"Of course you can save money by denying yourself all these little
vicious
enjoyments for fifty years, but then what can you do with it?
-what use
can you put it to? Money can't save your infinitesimal soul; all
the use
that money can be put to is to purchase comfort and enjoyment in
this life
-therefore, as you are an enemy to comfort and enjoyment, where is
the use
in accumulating cash?"
Brave
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.
Except a creature be part coward, it is not a compliment to say
he is
brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word."
Clean
"... I do despise this
washing business. I believe it to be a gratuitous & unnecessary
piece of
meanness. I never see them wash the cat."
Reverent
"Reverence for
one's own
sacred things--parents, religion, flag, laws and respect for one's
own beliefs--these
are feelings which we cannot even help. They come natural to us... But
the reverence which is difficult... is
the respect which you pay, without compulsion, to the political or
religious
attitude of a man whose beliefs are not yours. You can't revere
his gods
or his politics, and no one expects you to do that, but you could
respect
his belief in them if you tried hard enough; and you could respect
him,
too, if you tried hard enough."
"Mark Twain was the nicest man I ever worked with. You couldn't imagine a more congenial fellow." - Daniel Carter Beard

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