Girl Scouts’ 109th Birthday: 20 Inspiring Quotes From Famous Girl Scouts

On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low held her very first Girl Scout meeting, which was attended by a troop of 18 girls, in Savannah, Georgia.

Fast forward more than a century later, every year, on March 12, National Girl Scout Day is observed to celebrate the anniversary of the first troop gathering, which sparked the Girl Scout Movement.

The 2021 celebration of the holiday marks 109 years since the creation of the organization, famous for its cookies and community outreach.

With over 2.6 million scouts, including adults, and around 50 million alumni, there will be plenty to celebrate on Friday.

Check out some famous quotes about Girl Scouts, compiled from A-Z Quotes, BrainyQuote, and Bustle.

“To put yourself in another’s place requires real imagination, but by doing so each Girl Scout will be able to love among others happily.” — Juliette Gordon Low

“I wrote ‘Fight Song’ as this declaration to believe in myself, and that is similar to what you are taught to believe in Girl Scouts. Building confidence. Building character. And above all else, being there for each other as a community.” — Rachel Platten

“The Girl Scouts is an organization that constantly gives you new goals to achieve and that's what life is all about.” — Maria Bartiromo

“Girl Scouts helps girls make decisions that are right for them and offer support.” — Frances Hesselbein

“My purpose... to go on with my heart and soul, devoting all my energies to Girl Scouts, and heart and hand with them, we will make our lives and the lives of the future girls happy, healthy and holy.” — Low

“I love traveling around and talking to women in groups like the Girl Scouts, and being able to work with them is such an honor. For me, it’s always about working really hard and being able to help other people, which is what I’ve done with both of my books.” — Katherine Schwarzenegger

“The pleasure lies not in the cookies, but in the pattern, the crumbs make when the cookies crumble.” — Michael Korda

“The Girl Scouts is where I became acquainted with the idea that a woman can do anything. Learning that early on has a tremendous impact on the development of a young girl's personality. It had a huge impact on me. Girl Scouts is where I first learned about philanthropy and fell in love with the concept of helping others-in my troop this was very important. We did a lot of community service like picking up trash and feeding the homeless. Loving humankind was something that echoed throughout my time at Girl Scouts.” — Lisa Ling

“Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting can be the magic thread which links the girls of the world together.” — Low

“Girls Scouts taught me to succeed (cookie selling) and to fail (knot tying) and to learn and benefit from both.” — Carol Bellamy

“Girl Scouts is such an iconic organization that it’s easy to overlook how daring an idea it was for founder Juliette Gordon Low to gather those first 18 girls in that troop in Savannah, Georgia. It was 1912, after all, and women wouldn’t earn the right to vote for another eight years.” — Anna Maria Chavez

“God never slams a door in your face without opening a box of Girl Scout cookies.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.” — Barbara Jordan

“Sometimes when I speak to groups or I’m interviewed by a journalist, I ask them to imagine their communities without Girl Scouts — to imagine the thousands of food drives and clothing and toy collections that would never take place if not for Girl Scouts.” — Chavez

“The work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are its makers.” — Low

“I am struck by how many leading women... today started as Girl Scouts. It is an organization that obviously develops strong women leaders” — Christine Todd Whitman

“The thing I received from Girl Scouts more than anything else was a sense of real teamwork and working for the community, helping others, and it was not competitive. I remember working as a group to achieve a goal or to help the community. There was a great sense of accomplishment in that.” — Cathy Rigby

“I never had any question about the direction we were going in at the Girl Scouts. We shared our mission and research with all levels of leaders from the very beginning - a concept I created, using cups and saucers, called ‘circular management.’ Everyone was on a team; there were no superiors or subordinates. There was respect for all people.” — Hesselbein

“Many people don’t know, but American Girl Scouts get to travel the world, and that’s a very good thing, as the more we can expose our young people to other cultures, the better off we’ll be in this increasingly globalized environment.” — Chavez

“Scouting rises within you and inspires you to put forth your best.” — Low