Dag Hammarskjöld
These are very inspiring quotes from Dag Hammarskjöld which have been very useful to me. Hopefully others will find them uplifting too.
- For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.
- Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away.
- Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
- The longest journey is the journey inward.
- The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905 – 1961) was a Swedish diplomat and the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961.
1 comment:
After reading the third quote of Dag Hammarskjold that you have posted, I asked myself what he meant and why my eyes were attracted to it? Maybe those words reflect how I am feeling now, and have communicated something that I may not acknowledge exactly.
'Loneliness' is an existential experience during my youth. It would not be strange to say that I see loneliness as my friend when I was young. Before I was a Christian, my days were filled with things that vanished quickly. I could not identify with anything – including myself. It made me feel even lonelier. What I was longed for was unknown. And I went on pursuing things that others also pursued, but nothing remained.
Paradoxically, such feeling of nothingness actually seemed to be quite something, urging me to go somewhere or to do something...What a strange feeling!!!
After becoming Christian, I started to understand what loneliness really meant to me. When I was attending a retreat for men who were considering religious life, I had a strange experience. It was at the moment when the priest was removing the Host from the altar at the end of adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, something arose violently in my heart. It was like someone who was taking away my own existence: everything about me became empty. I cried bitterly knowing that I would be the loneliest one in this world if my life was without Jesus.
Because of such feeling, I realize that my soul cannot be satisfied with anything but God alone. And, it is the same feeling that urges me to look for the Supreme One. For most people, loneliness would be a negative feeling, but for me, it is different: God is behind this loneliness, or really, beyond it. I would say that such feeling is the ticket to the way of God, or at least, it is a sign for me to look for God. I would call it 'holy loneliness'. Perhaps, Dag Hammarskjold might agree too.
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