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.
Use itGS4: never gain by compromise; ill-gotten gains weaken you.
Quotes / Thinkers / Dag Hammarskjöld
Thinker · 22 quotes
Dag Hammarskjöld quotes for UPSC
22 sourced quotes by Dag Hammarskjöld on character & virtue, duty & responsibility, compassion & empathy, resilience & perseverance, happiness & meaning of life, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
✓ Attributions checked against Wikiquote's sourced list
It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy — from lack of character.
Use itGS4: niceness can be weakness; character sometimes needs firmness, even with opponents.
The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.
Use itGS4/Life: genuine dignity does not depend on others' recognition.
Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of self exaltation. To be humble is not to make comparisons.
— Dag Hammarskjöld29 July 1959
Use itGS4: humility means neither self-abasement nor arrogance; it means no comparison.
Goodness is something so simple: always to live for others, never to seek one's own advantage.
Use itGS4: define goodness as living for others without seeking personal advantage.
Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who 'forgives' you — out of love — takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.
— Dag HammarskjöldEaster 1960
Use itGS4/Essay: forgiveness breaks cycles of revenge and always involves sacrifice.
In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
— Dag Hammarskjöld25 December 1955
Use itGS4/Essay: virtue today is proven through action in the world (karma yoga parallel).
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
Use itLife/Essay: we can't choose circumstances but can choose what we make of them.
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 Hammarskjöld1 August 1955
Use itGS4: duty arises when a task is integral to the integrity that entitles us to responsibility.
Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.
Use itLife: you are only asked to give what you have; just don't run away.
You try to save a drowning man without prior authorization.
— Dag HammarskjöldStatement on UN Operations in Congo before the General Assembly, 17 October 1960
Use itGS4 case study: in emergencies, act to save lives without waiting for permission.
Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.
— Dag HammarskjöldNews reports (18 March 1956), reported in James Beasley Simpson (ed.) Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988)
Use itGS2 on preventive diplomacy or primary healthcare; steady care matters as much as big interventions.
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 HammarskjöldUnited Nations Bulletin, Vol. XVI, No. 4 (15 February 1954)
Use itEssay/GS2 on UN and diplomacy; pursuit of peace is unending, never abandoned.
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 Hammarskjöld19–20 November 1955
Use itEssay on diversity; have the courage to accept differences with humility and pride.
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 HammarskjöldOn accusations by Nikita Khrushchev, as quoted in The Times [London] (4 October 1960)
Use itEssay on fake news; repetition turns allegations into 'facts' without evidence.
Setbacks in trying to realize the ideal do not prove that the ideal is at fault.
— Dag HammarskjöldAs quoted by Rolf Edberg, Swedish Ambassador to Norway, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Hammarskjöld in Oslo, Norway (10 Decemb
Use itEssay/GS4: failures in practice don't invalidate an ideal; keep striving.
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Use itLife: challenges look smaller once overcome; don't measure them in advance.
For all that has been — Thanks! To all that shall be — Yes!
Use itLife/Essay conclusion: gratitude for the past, openness to the future.
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
Use itLife/Essay: find a purpose great enough to live and die for.
Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.
Use itLife: when life feels miserable, grow your own vision rather than blame life.
Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.
Use itEssay on friendship; true friends ease loneliness without words.
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.
Use itLife: keep your eye on the long-term goal, not each small step.