Dag Hammarskjold

“Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.”

“A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.”

“Praise those of your critics for whom nothing is up to standard.”

“To forgive oneself? No, that doesn't work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive.”

“Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.”

“Maturity - among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.”

“Your body must become familiar with its death - in all its possible forms and degrees - as a self-evident, imminent, and emotionally neutral step on the way towards the goal you have found worthy of your life.”

“The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form?”

“Time always seems long to the child who is waiting - for Christmas, for next summer, for becoming a grownup: long also when he surrenders his whole soul to each moment of a happy day.”

“Time always seems long to the child who is waiting - for Christmas, for next summer, for becoming a grownup: long also when he surrenders his whole soul to each moment of a happy day.”

“God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.”

“Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.”

“Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”

“Maturity - among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.”

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”

“The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.”

“A man of firm convictions does not ask, and does not receive, understanding from those with whom he comes into conflict. … A mature man is his own judge. In the end, his only firm support is being faithful to his own convictions. The advice of others may be welcome and valuable, but it does not free him from responsibility. Therefore, he may become very lonely.”

“The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the UN and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right — you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”

“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.”

“In a political context of the utmost significance, ["freedom from fear"] recognizes a human right which, in a broad sense, may be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”

“Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.”

“The Assembly has witnessed over the last weeks how historical truth is established; once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if no evidence has been brought out in order to support it.”

“Setbacks in trying to realize the ideal do not prove that the ideal is at fault.”

“It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. It is when we all play safe that fatality will lead us to our doom. It is in the "dark shade of courage" alone that the spell can be broken.”

“The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form?”

“It is a little bit humiliating when I have to say that Chou En-lai to me appears as the most superior brain I have so far met in the field of foreign politics... so much more dangerous than you imagine because he is so much better a man than you have ever admitted.”

“The big, shoe-thumping fellow continues as a dark thunderhead to threaten all unrepentant non-Communists with hail and thunder.”

“Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.”

“If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.”

“It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.”

“The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.”

“Give me a pure heart that I may see Thee. A heart of faith that I may abide in Thee.”

“A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.”

“Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. A mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.”

“Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”

“For all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be — Yes.”

“Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.”

“God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.”

“He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross — even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.”

“I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive.”

“I don't know Who — or what — put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

“In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.”

“In the faith which is "God's marriage to the soul", you are one in God, and God is wholly in you, just as, for you, He is wholly in all you meet. With this faith, in prayer you descend into yourself to meet the other.”

“In the last analysis it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions life puts to us … Hence too the necessity of preparing for it.”

“Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.”

“Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.”

“The myths have always condemned those who "looked back." Condemned them, whatever the paradise may have been which they were leaving. Hence this shadow over each departure from your decision”

“Maturity: among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.”

“Never, "for the sake of peace and quiet," deny your own experience or convictions.”

“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.”

“Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.”

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”

“The longest journey For the source of his being.”

“The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.”

“There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return.”

“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.”

“Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.”

“"To forgive oneself"—? No, that doesn't work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive.”

“To love life and men as God loves them — and never look back.”

“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.”

“What makes loneliness an anguishBut this:”

“You are not the oil, you are not the air — merely the point of combustion, the flash-point where the light is born. You are merely the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. If you seek yourself, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency — your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end and remain purely as a means.”

“Your body must become familiar with its death — in all its possible forms and degrees — as a self-evident, imminent, and emotionally neutral step on the way towards the goal you have found worthy of your life.”

“Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.”

“'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”

“It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy — from lack of character.”

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”

“'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”

“Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.”

“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.”

“Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”

“Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.”

“The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.”

“Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.”

“It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.”

“The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.”

“I am the vessel. The draft is God's. And God is the thirsty one.”

“If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.”

“God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.”

“Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.”

“'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”

“I never discuss discussions.”

“It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy - from lack of character.”

“It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.”

“Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.”

“The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.”

“In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us.”

“Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.”

“What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.”

“Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.”

“There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return.”

“Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.”

“The myths have always condemned those who 'looked back.' Condemned them, whatever the paradise may have been which they were leaving. Hence this shadow over each departure from your decision.”

“The Assembly has witnessed over the last weeks how historical truth is established; once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if no evidence has been brought out in order to support it.”

“The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.”

“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.”

“It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.”

“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.”

“The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.”

“Everything will be all right - you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”

“If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.”

“Maturity - among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.”

“Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away.”

“Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.”

“Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.”

“Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions.”

“I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive.”

“Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.”