Dag Hammarskjold

When we die

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

~ Dag Hammarskjöld

Our work for peace

Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each of us . . .

~ by Dag Hammarskjold

Only those who listen can speak authentically

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

~ Dag Hammarskjold

Forgiveness is the miracle by which what is broken is made whole again

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.

~ by Dag Hammarskjold

Through stillness

Understand -- through the stillness,
Act -- out of the stillness,
Conquer -- in the stillness.

In order for the eye to perceive color, it must divest itself of all colors.

~ from MARKINGS by Dag Hammarskjold

The mystical experience

The "mystical experience." Always HERE and NOW -- in that freedom which is one with distance, in that stillness which is born of silence. But 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 those who, in this world, are 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.

~ from MARKINGS by Dag Hammarskjold

Then a tree becomes a mystery

In the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud a revelation, each individual a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable.

~ Dag Hammarskjold

Then a tree becomes a mystery

In the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud a revelation, each person a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable.

~ Dag Hammarskjold

So all things have meaning and beauty

You take the pen -- and the lines dance.
You take the flute -- and the notes shimmer.
You take the brush -- and the colors sing.
So all things have meaning and beauty in that space beyond time where You are.
How then, can I hold anything from You?

~ Dag Hammarskjold
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