Dag Hammarskjold Quotes

I am never more myself than in my self-betrayals.

The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.' 'I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self.' He turned. 'You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy.'

I'm trying not to change.

We often mistake the original part of ourselves for a weakness.

If you say that you're all about a certain something, and look back and see that the choices that you've made don't reflect that, then there's something for you to look at.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

Keep your sense of self; don't get caught up in what people want you to be.

You can't get away from who you are I guess.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

What's the greater risk? Letting go of what people think - or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.

Yeah, it's nice to look up to people, but the more you try to be somebody else, the less you are of yourself.

Everyone kept telling me, Just be yourself. Be yourself. I kept thinking, there's got to be more to it than that!

My security comes from my senses, my sensing the direction I should go and suddenly I felt out of tune, out of step with what other people wanted or what other people expected of me.

I think there's always a conflict within me about being comfortable and secure and then being an individual and fighting for what I want to be on an individual basis.

I used to tell myself that I will always be myself.

The experience of the self is always a defeat for the ego.

The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people’s expectations.

The struggle to excavate your true, authentic self from beneath the mountain of conditioning and ridiculous expectation is the epic struggle of your lifetime.

How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?

The hardest victory is the victory over self.

One can only walk so far from one's true self before the bond either snaps, or pulls one back.

I find myself both as man and as myself something more determined and distinctive, at pitch, more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.

How easy it is to be "deep": all you have to do is let yourself sink into your own flaws.