Dag Hammarskjöld Quotes

Swedish diplomat, economist, and author (1905-1961)

Dag Hammarskjöld (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, the second United Nations Secretary-General, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He oversaw U.N. responses to Cold War crises, the decolonization of Africa, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was killed in a plane crash while attempting to mediate the Congo Crisis.

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Alternative Names: Da gHjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld • Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld

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The dizziness in the face of les espaces infinis — only overcome if we dare to gaze into them without any protection. And accept them as the reality before which we must justify our existence. For this is the truth we must reach to live, that everything is and we just in it.

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

The present moment is significant, not as the bridge between past and future, but by reason of its contents — contents which can fill our emptiness and become ours, if we are capable of receiving them.

Do not look back. And do not dream about the future, either. It will neither give you back the past, nor satisfy your other daydreams. Your duty, your reward — your destiny — are here and now.

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

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

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

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

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.

"PRAY that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."
Dag Hammarskjold
Swedish diplomat (1905 - 1961)

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

That our pains and longings are thousandfold and can be anesthetized in a thousand different ways is as commonplace a truth as that, in the end, they are all one, and can only be overcome in one way. What you most need is to feel...

A heart pulsating in harmony with the circulation of sap and the flow of rivers? A body with the rhythms of the earth in its movements? No. Instead: a mind, shut off from the oxygen of alert senses, that has wasted itself on 'treasons, stratagems and spoils' — of importance only within four walls. A tame animal — in whom the strength of the species has outspent itself, to no purpose.

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

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