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Dag Hammarskjöld
60 quotes
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: United Nations Bulletin, Vol. XVI, No. 4 (15 February 1954)
“It has been said that the United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the University of California, Berkeley (13 May 1954)
“A man of firm convictions does not ask, and does not receive, understanding from those with whom he comes into conflict. ... A mature man is his own judge. In the end, his only firm support is being faithful to his own convictions. The advice of others may be welcome and valuable, but it does not free him from responsibility. Therefore, he may become very lonely.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Swedish Academy (20 December 1954)
“The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the UN and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right — you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Times [London] (27 June 1955)
“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: News reports (18 March 1956), reported in James Beasley Simpson (ed.) Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988)
“I never discuss discussions.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement after diplomatic talks, as quoted in Look (19 September 1956)
“In a political context of the utmost significance, ["freedom from fear"] recognizes a human right which, in a broad sense, may be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the celebration of the 180th anniversary of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (16 May 1956). Public Papers of the Secretaries General of the United Nations, vol. 3 (2010) p. 141
“Do we refer to the purposes of the Charter? They are expressions of universally shared ideals which cannot fail us, though we, alas, often fail them. Or do we think of the institutions of the United Nations? They are our tools. We fashioned them. We use them. It is our responsibility to remedy any flaws there may be in them. ... This is a difficult lesson for both idealists and realists, though for different reasons. I suppose that, just as the first temptation of the realist is the illusion of cynicism, so the first temptation of the idealist is the illusion of Utopia.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An International Administrative Service", From an Address to the International Law Association at McGill University, Montreal, 30 May, 1956. Wilder Foote (ed.) The Servant of Peace: A Selection of the Speeches and State…
“You try to save a drowning man without prior authorization.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement on UN Operations in Congo before the General Assembly, 17 October 1960.
“Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Nikita Khrushchev, as quoted in The Times [London] (4 October 1960)
“The Assembly has witnessed over the last weeks how historical truth is established; once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if no evidence has been brought out in order to support it.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On accusations by Nikita Khrushchev, as quoted in The Times [London] (4 October 1960)
“Setbacks in trying to realize the ideal do not prove that the ideal is at fault.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Rolf Edberg, Swedish Ambassador to Norway, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Hammarskjöld in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1961)
“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.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Servant of Peace: A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations (1962), p. 107
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement inspired by the work of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, quoted in The Christian Science Monitor (18 June 1964)
“It is a little bit humiliating when I have to say that Chou En-lai to me appears as the most superior brain I have so far met in the field of foreign politics...[He is] so much more dangerous than you imagine because he is so much better a man than you have ever admitted.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to a friend, as quoted in Brian Urquhart, Hammarskjöld (1972)
“The big, shoe-thumping fellow continues as a dark thunderhead to threaten all unrepentant non-Communists with hail and thunder.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to a friend, as quoted in Brian Urquhart, Hammarskjöld (1972)
“Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1925–1930
“Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1925–1930
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1925–1930
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1925–1930
“Mät aldrig bergets höjd förrän du nått toppen. Då skall du se hur lågt det var.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1925–1930
“Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1941–1942
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1950
“The longest journey Is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest For the source of his being.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1950
“Time goes by: reputation increases, ability declines.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1950
“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1950
“Är livet fattigt? Är icke snarare din hand för smal, dina ögonlinser grumlade? Det är du som måste växa.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1950
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1951
“Never, "for the sake of peace and quiet," deny your own experience or convictions.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1952
“Bed att din ensamhet blir sporren att finna något att leva för, stort nog att dö för.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1952
“Jag kämpar för det omöjliga: att mitt liv skall få en mening. Jag vågar inte, vet inte hur jag skulle kunna tro: att jag inte är ensam.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1952
“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.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1952
“It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy — from lack of character.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1952
“For all that has been — Thanks! To all that shall be — Yes!”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1953
“Att vara fri, att kunna stå upp och lämna allt — utan att se sig tillbaka. Att säga ja —”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 7 April 1953
“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.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 7 April 1953
“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 (1905–1961) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 7 April 1953
“Give me a pure heart — that I may see Thee. A humble heart — that I may hear Thee, A heart of love — that I may serve Thee, A heart of faith — that I may abide in Thee.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1954
“Godhet är något så enkelt: att alltid finnas för andra, att aldrig söka sig själv.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1955
“The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1955
“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 (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1 August 1955
“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...”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1 August 1955
“Le courage de nos différences. Without becoming irresponsible, to accept what divides us — with humility and with pride. It is by the 'new' that mankind is saved or betrayed.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 19–20 November 1955
“In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 25 December 1955
“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 Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1956
“To love life and men as God loves them — for the sake of their infinite possibilities, to wait like Him, to judge like Him, without passing judgment, to obey the order when it is given and never look back — Then He can use you — then, perhaps, He will use you.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 22 April 1956
“I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 29 November 1956
“Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided...it is a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 26 December 1956
“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 (1905–1961) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 23 June 1957
“You are not the oil, you are not the air — merely the point of combustion, the flash-point where the light is born. You are merely the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. If you seek yourself, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency — your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end and remain purely as a means.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 28 July 1957