It is not the repeated mistakes, the long succession of petty betrayals – though, God knows, they would give cause enough for anxiety and self-contempt – but the huge elementary mistake, the betrayal of that within me which is greater than I – in complacent adjustment to alien demands.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld Quotes

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.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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

— Dag Hammarskjöld

Beneath the hush a whisper from long ago, promising peace of mind and a burden shared. No peace which is not peace for all, no rest until all has been fulfilled.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

Perhaps a great love is never returned. Had it been given warmth and shelter by its counterpart in the Other, perhaps it would have been hindered from ever growing to maturity. It “gives” us nothing. But in its world of loneliness it leads us up to the summits with wide vistas – of great insights.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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 Hammarskjöld

I never discuss discussions.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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 Hammarskjöld

Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each of us.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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 Hammarskjöld

The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

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 Hammarskjöld

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

— Dag Hammarskjöld
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