The Royal Mountain

"From that hour, I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. Led by Ariadne's thread of my answer through the labyrinth of Life, I came to a time and place where I realized that the Way leads to a triumph which is a catastrophe, and to a catastrophe which is a triumph, that the price for committing one's life would be reproach, and that the only elevation possible to man lies in the depths of humiliation. After that, the word 'courage' lost its meaning, since nothing could be taken from me."    -Dag Hammarskjold

Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of self-exaltation. To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, than anything else in the universe. It is--is nothing, yet at the same time one with everything. It is in this sense that humility is absolute self-effacement. To be nothing in the self-effacement of humility, yet, for the sake of the task, to embody its whole weight and importance in your bearing, as the one who has been called to undertake it. To give to people, works, poetry, art, what the self can contribute, and to take, simply and freely, what belongs to it by reason of its identity. Praise and blame, the winds of success and adversity, blow over such a life without leaving a trace or upsetting its balance. Towards this, so help me, God--    -Dag Hammarskjold

"You wake from dreams of doom and--for a moment--you know: beyond all the noise and gestures, the only real thing, love's calm and unwavering flame in the half-light of an early dawn."  -Dag Hammarskjold

"Did you choose your words carefully enough, what impression did you make, did they think you were trying to be ingratiating, etc.? It is questions like these which keep you awake. Are you no longer confident that your instinctive reactions will guide you right? If so, you know why. You have allowed your hunger for 'justice' to make you self-conscious, so that, in the performance of your task, you no longer forget yourself. So, and only so, can you be wounded by the opinions of the crowd." -Dag Hammarskjold

"The intense blaze of your anxiety reveals to what a great extent you are still fettered, still alienated from the One. However, don't worry about this or anything else, but follow the Way of which you are aware, even when you have departed from it. 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou will.'" -Dag Hammarskjold

"Would the crucifixion have had any sublimity or meaning if Jesus had seen Himself crowned with the halo of martyrdom? What we have later added was not there for him. And we must forget all about it if we are to hear his commands."  -Dag Hammarskjold

"It merely happens to one man and not to others...but he can take no credit to himself for the gifts and responsibility assigned to him...destiny is something not to be 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 Hammarskjold

Anxious for the good opinion of others, and jealous of the possibility that they may become 'famous', you have lowered yourself to wondering what will happen in the end to what you have done and been. How dead can a man be behind a façade of great ability, loyalty--and ambition! Bless your uneasiness as a sign that there is still life in you.  -Dag Hammarskjold

"Courage? On the level where the only thing that counts is a man's loyalty to himself, the word has no meaning. Was he brave? No, just logical." -Dag Hammarskjold

"Concerning the hardness of the heart--and its littleness--Let me read with open eyes the book my days are writing--and learn."  -Dag Hammarskjold

You dare your yes--and experience a meaning. You repeat your yes--and all things acquire a meaning. When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything but a yes. -Dag Hammarkjold

"This is a freedom in the midst of action, a stillness, in the midst of other human beings. The mystery is a constant reality to him who, in this world, is free from self-concern, a reality that grows peaceful and mature before the receptive attention of assent. In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action." -Dag Hammarkjold

"All first-hand experience is valuable, and he who has given up looking for it will one day find that he lacks what he needs: a closed mind is a weakness, and he who approaches persons, or painting, or poetry without the youthful ambition to learn a new language and so gain access to someone else's perspective on life, let him beware." -Dag Hammarskjold

"The light died in the low clouds. Falling snow drank in the dusk. Shrouded in silence, the branches wrapped me in their peace. When the boundaries were erased, once again the wonder: that I exist." -Dag Hammarskjold

"Do you still need to evoke memories of a self-imposed humiliation in order to extinguish a smoldering self-admiration? To be pure in heart, among other things, means to have freed yourself from all such half-measures: from a tone of voice which places you in the limelight, a furtive acceptance of some desire of the flesh which ignores the desire of the spirit, a self-righteous reaction to others in their moments of weakness. Look at yourself in that mirror when you wish to be praised--or to judge. Do so without despairing." -Dag Hammarskjold

"Destined...a reward--or a price--to be committed to a task in comparison with which nothing I could seek for myself is of any value." -Dag Hammarskjold

"Maturity: among other things, a new lack of self-consciousness--the kind you can only attain when you have become entirely indifferent to yourself through an absolute assent to your fate. He who has placed himself in God's hand stands free vis-a-vis men: he is entirely at his ease with them, because he has granted them to the right to judge." -Dag Hammarskjold

"So rests the sky against the earth. The dark still tarn in the lap of the forest. As a husband embraces his wife's body in faithful tenderness, so the bare ground and trees are embraced by the still, high, light of the morning. I feel an ache of longing to share in this embrace, to be united and absorbed. A longing like carnal desire, but directed towards earth, water, sky, and returned by the whispers of the trees, the fragrance of the soil, the caresses of the wind, the embrace of water and light. Content? No, no, no--but refreshed, rested--while waiting." -Dag Hammarskjold

"Dare he, for whom circumstances make it possible to realize his true destiny, refuse it simply because he is not prepared to give up everything else?" -Dag Hammarskjold