Dag Hammarskjold (1905 – 1961)
Swedish diplomat, the second United Nations Secretary-General, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.
Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just. And how can we fight for liberty if we are not free in our own minds? How can we ask others to sacrifice if we are not ready to do so?... Only in true surrender to the interest of all can we reach that strength and independence, that unity of purpose, that equity of judgment which are necessary if we are to measure up to our duty to the future, as men of a generation to whom the chance was given to build in time a world of peace.
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.
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
Setbacks in trying to realize the ideal do not prove that the ideal is at fault.
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
You try to save a drowning man without prior authorization.
The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. It is when we all play safe that fatality will lead us to our doom. It is in the "dark shade of courage" alone that the spell can be broken.
Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.
It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy — from lack of character.
Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.
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..."
It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.
In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross — even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.
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.