Dag Hammarskjold quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjold Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Dag Hammarskjold on Wise Famous Quotes.

He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.

Isn't the fulfillment of our duty towards our neighbor an expression of deepest desire?

Unless there is a spiritual renaissance, the world will know no peace.

Doffing the ego's
safe glory, he finds
his naked reality.

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.

Trees quiver in the wind,
sailing on a sea of mist
out of earshot.

At some moment I did answer "Yes" to someone or something. And from that hour on I was certain that existence is meaningful.

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.

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

Like the bee, we distill poison from honey for our self-defense
what happens to the bee if it uses its sting is well known.

This accidental meeting of possibilities calls itself I. I ask: what am I doing here? And, at once, this I becomes unreal.

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

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

Is my contact with others anything more than a contact with reflections? Who or what can give me the power to transform the mirror into a doorway?

For all that has been, Thanks. To all that shall be, Yes.

The truth is so simple that it is regarded as a pretentious banality.

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

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

To reach perfection, we must all pass, one by one, through the death of self-effacement.

It was when Lucifer first congratulated himself upon his angelic behavior that he became the tool of evil.

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.

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.

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

For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.

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

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

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.

Too tired for company,
You seek a solitude
You are too tired to fill.

Acts of violence
Whether on a large or a small scale, the bitter paradox: the meaningfulness of death
and the meaninglessness of killing.

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.

Only one feat is possible: not to have run away.

To the past: Thanks.
To the future: Yes.

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

For all that has been,
Thank you.
For all that is to come,
Yes!

To be free, to rise and leave everything, without a glance back, behind. To say "yes".

I never discuss discussions.

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.

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

In the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way.

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.

The UN wasn't created to take mankind into paradise, but rather, to save humanity from hell.

A human intimacy
free from the earth but blessing the earth.

The 'great' commitment is so much easier than the ordinary everyday one.

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

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

We all have within us a center of stillness surrounded by silence.

You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is still possible that you have something to contribute.

It is more important to understand the ground of your own behavior than to understand the motives of another.

Be grateful as your deeds become less and less associated with your name, as your feet ever more lightly tread the earth.

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

I have only my own burden to bear.

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

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.

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

Forgiving is forgetting, in spite of remembering.

We cannot afford to forget any experience, not even the most painful.

On the bookshelf of life, God is a useful work of reference, always at hand but seldom consulted.

Apes. The moon woke them
round the world's navel revolved
prayer wheels of steps.

Peacekeeping is not a job for soldiers, but only soldiers can do it.

Didst thou give me this inescapable loneliness so that it would be easier for me to give thee all?

Destiny is something not to be desired and not to be avoided.

Life only demands from you the strength you possess.

Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.

The devils enter uninvited when the house stands empty. For other kinds of guests, you have to first open the door.

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

His moral lecture
blazed with hate.
What could have driven a child that far?

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

Somebody placed the shuttle in your hand: somebody who had already arranged the threads.

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

No cracking of the whip of words
disturbed his peace
in a space that sung.

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

He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds.

Friendship needs no words.

My home drove me
into the wilderness.
Few look for me. Few hear me.

Each day the first day:
Each day a life.

Humility before the flower at the timber line is the gate which gives access to the path up the open fell.

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.

Perhaps a great love is never returned.

Life yields only to the conqueror.

Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.

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