Some Quotes by Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld was a great diplomat, writer, thinker, and Christian. Among the many things he said and wrote are these words:

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

The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.

What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.

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.

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

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.
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.

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.

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

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.

The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.

What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.

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.

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

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.
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.

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.

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

Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.