Quotes from Dag Hammarskjöld

"The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside. And only he who listens can speak."

" 'Better than other people.' Sometimes he says: 'That at least, you are.' But more often: 'Why should you be? Either you are what you can be, or you are not--like other people."

"Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible --not to run away."

"You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds."

"On the bookshelf of life, God is a useful work of reference, always at hand, but seldom consulted."

"Here and now--only this is real:

The good face of an old man,

Caught naked in an unguarded moment,

Without past, without future."

"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."

"We reach out towards the other...in vain--because we have never dared to give ourselves."

"...(He) breathed an atmosphere filled with the products of his own spiritual combustion..."

"A line, a shade a color--their fiery expressiveness.The language of flowers, mountains, shores, human bodies: the interplay of light and shade in a look, the aching beauty of a neckline, the grail of the white crocus on the alpine meadow in the morning sunshine--words in a transcendental language of the senses."

"A grace to pray for--that our self-interest, which is inescapable, shall never cripple our sense of humor, that fully conscious self-scrutiny which alone can save us."

"Only tell others what is of importance to them. Only ask them what you need to know. In both cases, that is, limit the conversation to what the speaker really possesses.--Argue only in order to reach a conclusion. Think aloud only with those to whom this means something. Don't let small talk fill up the time and the silence except as a medium for bearing unexpressed messages between two people who are attuned to each other. A dietary for those who have learned by experience the truth of the saying, "For every idle word...", but this is hardly popular in social life."

"We press body against body--bringing to nought that human beauty which is only physical in that the surfaces of the body are animated by a spirit inaccessible to physical touch."

"Don't be afraid of yourself, live your individuality to the full--but for the good of others."

"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. And if He doesn't use you--what matter? In His hand, every moment has its meaning, its greatness, its glory, its peace, its coherence."

*published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.