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

"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

"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

"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

"It didn't matter, though; a subtle shift had taken place in his character in the past day or two, one of those subsidences which produce new landmarks and alter the emphasis of the old. What now stood revealed was enjoyment: he realized that he was a human being well fitted to enjoy. Astonishing but true: in all his years of running he had never positively enjoyed a race. He had envied the sprinters, the shot-putters, the jumpers, all those whose event demanded less ascetic discipline than his. Between puts he had seen shot-men reading the paper or chatting with their competitors. And he had felt excluded. Now it occurred to him that he had been excluding himself. But he wasn't excluding himself anymore. And in a flash of intuition he realized why: he had renounced ambition, the tyranny of schedule and stop-watch, the profit-and-loss accounting of his training to date. He said to himself: I solemnly give up all side-considerations, all hopes of gain or celebrity, retaini...