Dag Hammarskjold Quotes
There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return.
Hammarskjöld, Dag. Markings. Translated by Leif Sjöberg and W. H. Auden, Alfred A. Knopf, 1964, p. 87.
In a statement that resembled Margaret Thatcher’s famous words, see {35715}, Blair promised his party delegates that he would follow through on his past policy decisions, even though, in the case of his support of the Iraq War, they were controversial.
Menander first originated the phrase. However, Julius Caesar made it famous, by stating it when he crossed the Rubicon River with his Legions and headed for Rome. He had passed the “point of no return.” It was forbidden for a Roman commander of legions to allow the legions under arms to come that close to Rome under the theory that no military commander could take over the government if his legions were at a distance from Rome. Caesar was indeed marching on Rome with his troops, and took over the government. The great phrase implied that the key action had been taken and the commitment made. The dice was thrown but no one know yet what the results would be. For Caesar, they turned out to be good. Dice was a very good metaphor for the era as Greek and Roman men played (and gambled) on dice games frequently. John Adams used a variant of the quotation in castigating President Taylor. See {622034}
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. As of 2021, Hammarskjöld remains the youngest person to have held the Secretary-General post, having been only 47 years old when he was appointed in 1953. His second term was cut short when he died in the crash of his DC-6 airplane in Northern Rhodesia while en route to cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis. He is the only person in history to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.
