"How Then Shall We Live?" is the title of the famous book by Francis Schaeffer.

The question says it all: In light of what we know, how should we live? It's not such an easy puzzle to solve. As we age and grow, our understanding deepens (we hope), and with the work of seeking and contemplation we come closer to the answers.

We don't all come up with the same answers, but certainly there is some concensus. And we continue to strive.

What we want to do here is share quotations from people who have thought deeply about the question: How then shall we live? -- things that seem worth pondering and applying. We'll showcase one new quotation each week and keep a collection of our weekly and other quotes below, on this page, for your perusal and ponderations.

QUOTATIONS

The main regrets I have found in my 100 years of living come when I haven’t treated someone as well as I could have.  Bessie Delany

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Rudyard Kipling

To be nobody but yourself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. e. e. cummings

If by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. Albert Einstein

Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you can desire are not to be compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one who retains her. Proverbs 3:13-18, The Bible

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy; O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

It was only a sunny smile and little it cost in the giving but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living. Author unknown

To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special. Jim Valvano

[I]f you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid. Albert Einstein

Men give me some credit for genius. All the genius I have lies in this: when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me, I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I make, the people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought. Alexander Hamilton

People make a mistake who think that my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over. Amadeus Mozart

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered. G. K. Chesterton

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. Mother Teresa

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. John W. Gardner

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes. Charles Swindoll

Can the secret of satisfying living be boiled down to a handful of super-short sentences? Try these: Be kind. Do Right. Enrich others. Laugh freely. Cry freely. Take chances. Live now. Be real. Do good. Befriend the lonely. Defend the helpless. Promote liberty. Unknown

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. Mark Victor Hansen

Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee. Ralph Waldo Emerson

...having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. Benjamin Franklin

Don't Quit   When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road your trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit Rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with its twists and its turns, As everyone of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about When they might have won, had they stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow, You may succeed with another blow. Often the struggler has given up When he might have captured the victors cup; And he learned too late when the night came down, How close he was to the golden crown. Success is failure turned inside out The silver tint of the clouds of doubt And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far; So stick to the fight when your hardest hit, It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit! Rev. Wade Watts (believed to be)

Do not look at the faces in the illustrated papers [or the internet]. Look at the faces in the street. G. K. Chesterton

_________________________________________________________________________________
Contact FortOGeorgia.com at fortogeorgia@gmail.com or our Contact Us page.