Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Dag Hammarskjold (Swedish Statesman)

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–61,) fully Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld, was a Swedish economist and diplomat. In his role as the United Nations Secretary-General 1953–61, he reformed the U.N. Secretariat and applied the full range of the powers of the office.

Born in Jönköping, Dag Hammarskjöld was the son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, who served as prime minister of Sweden and long-time chair of the Nobel Prize Foundation. Dag Hammarskjöld studied law and economics at Uppsala and Stockholm and taught political economy at Stockholm 1933–36. He then joined the Swedish civil service, worked in the ministry of finance, became president of the board of the Bank of Sweden, and later served in the ministry of foreign affairs.

In 1951, Hammarskjöld became a leader of Sweden’s delegation to the U.N. General Assembly. After Norway’s Trygve Lie resigned as first United Nations Secretary-General, Hammarskjöld was elected to the office for a term of five years. In September 1957, he was re-elected to another five-year term.

Hammarskjöld played a leading role in expanding the operations of the U.N., most notably for his leading role in setting up the U.N. Emergency Force in Sinai and Gaza in 1956, and his efforts for conciliation in the Middle East 1957–58. He also steered the technical and economic assistance to poor and newly independent nations.

Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, while he was occupied in negotiations over the Congo Crisis. A Swedish-led U.N. inquiry concluded that the plane crashed because of “pilot error;” but this did not satisfy many who suspected foul play. He was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961.

Hammarskjöld’s journal, Markings (1964,) revealed his literary and philosophical values and his aspirations to reconcile abstract ideals with human frailty.

Princeton University’s Henry Pitney Van Dusen wrote the acclaimed biography Dag Hammarskjöld (1967.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Dag Hammarskjold

Only one feat is possible: not to have run away.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Courage

So rests the sky against the earth. The dark still tarn in the lap of the forest. As a husband embraces his wife’s body in faithful tenderness, so the bare ground and trees are embraced by this still, high, light of the morning. I feel an ache of longing to share in this embrace, to be united and absorbed. A longing like carnal desire, but directed towards earth, water, sky, and returned by the whispers of the trees, the fragrance of the soil, the caresses of the wind, the embrace of water and light. Content? No, no, no—but refreshed, rested—while waiting.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Wilderness

We cannot afford to forget any experience, not even the most painful.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Memory

We all have within us a center of stillness surrounded by silence.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Serenity

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

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Spirituality, Respect, Respectability

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Integrity

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Forgiveness

Perhaps a great love is never returned.
—Dag Hammarskjold

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Dedication, Decisions, Simplicity, Commitment

It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Security, Risk, Safety

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Decisions, Destiny

The great commitment is so much easier than the ordinary, everyday one—and can all too easily shut our hearts to the latter. A willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice can be associated with, and even produce, a great hardness of heart. You thought you were indifferent to praise for achievements which you would not yourself have counted to your credit, or that, if you should be tempted to feel flattered, you would always remember that the praise far exceeded what the events justified. You thought yourself indifferent—until you felt your jealousy flare up at his naive attempts to make himself important, and your self-conceit stood exposed. Concerning the hardness of the heart—and its littleness—let me read with open eyes the book my days are writing, and learn.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Praise

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Dying, Death

If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Dying, Death

Fatigue dulls the pain, but awakes enticing thoughts of death. So! that is the way in which you are tempted to overcome your loneliness—by making the ultimate escape from life.—No! It may be that death is to be your ultimate gift to life: it must not be an act of treachery against it.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Work

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: War

Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Purpose, Loneliness

Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Reputation

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Forgiveness

You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is still possible that you have something to contribute.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Doing

Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Achievement, Possibilities, Perseverance, Journeys

The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Self-talk, Confidence

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward.
—Dag Hammarskjold

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.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Peace

Life demands from you only the strength you posses. One one feat is possible—not to have run away.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Being True to Yourself

Isn’t the fulfillment of our duty towards our neighbor an expression of deepest desire?
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Friendship

In life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Self-Pity, Hedonism, Self-reliance, Vision, Gratitude, Blessings, Attitude, Foresight, Acceptance, Forethought

Praise those of your critics for whom nothing is up to standard.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Critics, Criticism

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
—Dag Hammarskjold
Topics: Action

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