Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that the path we follow in life often guides us rather than the other way around.
Dag Hammarskjold suggests that instead of actively searching for our purpose or direction in life, it is actually the purpose that finds us. We must remain open and prepared to embrace opportunities as they arise, demonstrating our faithfulness to this path even during times of waiting.
Themes
PathPurposePreparednessFaithfulnessOpportunity
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to emphasize the importance of being open to life's opportunities.
More from Dag Hammarskjold
All quotes βDo not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
The world cannot live at peace without the United Nations. For this reason: it creates a reasonable guarantee that all this change in the world, these tremendous political and economic developments, can be channelized, kept orderly. The United Nations is a mold that keeps the hot metal from spilling over.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
In a dream I walked with God through the deep places of creation; past walls that receded and gates that opened through hall after hall of silence, darkness and refreshment--the dwelling place of souls acquainted with light and warmth--until, around me, was an infinity into which we all flowed together and lived anew, like the rings made by raindrops falling upon wide expanses of calm dark waters.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Dag HammarskjoldRead
Similar quotes
The common element in all the special forms of contemplation is the loving, yearning, affirming bent toward that happiness which is the same as God Himself, and which is the aim and purpose of all that happens in the world.
Josef PieperRead
Every man is of importance to himself.
Samuel JohnsonRead
Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable; the other, who cries, makes it sacred.
Anatole FranceRead
The new and terrible dangers which man has created can only be controlled by man.
John F. KennedyRead
Retreat is a response to the call of the heart-that call which beckons us toward reality, to the truth of our being, to that which is truly sane, really real and liberating ... When a group of people come together as a response to that kind of inward call, it creates a very powerful environment, where truth is held in the highest esteem and the reality of our being responds to that deepest intention.
AdyashantiRead
Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.
PlatoRead