Dag Hammarskjöld Quotes

To love life and men as God loves them — for the sake of
their infinite possibilities, to wait like Him, to judge like Him, without passing judgment, to obey the order when it is given and never look back.

Do we refer to the purposes of the Charter? They are expressions of universally shared ideals which cannot fail us, though we, alas, often fail them. Or do we think of the institutions of the United Nations? They are our tools. We fashioned them. We use them. It is our responsibility to remedy any flaws there may be in them.... This is a difficult lesson for both idealists and realists, though for different reasons. I suppose that, just as the first temptation of the realist is the illusion of cynicism, so the first temptation of the idealist is the illusion of Utopia.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

When you have reached the point where you no longer expect a response, you will at last be able to give in such a way that the other is able to receive, and be grateful. When Love has matured and, through a dissolution of the self into light, become a radiance, then shall the Lover be liberated from dependence upon the Beloved, and the Beloved also be made perfect by being liberated from the Lover.

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

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

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

The 'mystical experience'. Always here and now - in that freedom which is one with distance in that stillness which is born of silence. But - this is a freedom in the midst of action, a stillness in the midst of other human beings. The mystery is a constant reality to him who, in this world, is free from self-concern, a reality that grows peaceful and mature before the receptive attention of assent.

Respect for the word is the first commandment in the discipline by which a man can be educated to maturity — intellectual, emotional, and moral.
Respect for the word — to employ it with scrupulous care and in incorruptible heartfelt love of truth — is essential if there is to be any growth in a society or in the human race.
To misuse the word is to show contempt for man. It undermines the bridges and poisons the wells. It causes Man to regress down the long path of his evolution.
"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men speak..."