27 Quotes & Sayings By Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjold was a Swedish diplomat and humanitarian who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961, following Trygve Lie. He was a driving force behind the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in 1956, and remained active in UN affairs until his death in a plane crash on a mission to end the Suez Crisis. Hammarskjold was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961 for his work with the United Nations.

1
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. Dag Hammarskjold
2
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 Hammarskjold
3
Time goes by: reputation increases ability declines. Dag Hammarskjold
4
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
5
Only one feat is possible: not to have run away. Dag Hammarskjold
6
Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Dag Hammarskjold
7
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. Dag Hammarskjold
8
How Forgiveness Helps Us 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
9
Friendship needs no words-it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness. Dag Hammarskjold
10
Only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road. Dag Hammarskjold
11
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance renewed daily of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason. Dag Hammarskjold
12
Life only demands from the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away. Dag Hammarskjold
13
It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. Dag Hammarskjold
14
Is 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
15
The present moment is significant not as the bridge between past and future but by reason of its contents which can fill our emptiness and become ours if we are capable of receiving them Dag Hammarskjold
16
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
17
Time always seems long to the child who is waiting - for Christmas, for next summer, for becoming a grownup: long also when he surrenders his whole soul to each moment of a happy day. Dag Hammarskjold
18
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was. Dag Hammarskjold
19
Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible not to run away. Dag Hammarskjold
20
The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form? Dag Hammarskjold
21
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
22
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. Dag Hammarskjold
23
Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions. Dag Hammarskjold
24
'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights. Dag Hammarskjold
25
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for. Dag Hammarskjold
26
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 made clean again. Dag Hammarskjold