Dag Hammarskjöld

“To be ’sociable’ – to talk merely because convention forbids silence, to rub against one another in order to create the illusion of intimacy and contact: what an example of la condition humaine. Exhausting, naturally, like any improper use of our spiritual resources. In miniature, one of the many ways in which mankind successfully acts as its own scourge–in the hell of spiritual death.”

- Dag Hammarskjöld; translated from Swedish by Leif Sjöberg & W.H. Auden.

Likewise, he also wrote poetry; or possibly merely arranged his thoughts through a rhythmic symbolism:

Too tired for company,
You seek a solitude
You are too tired to fill.

Seems to me that these both can (at times)  fit autism pretty well.

A few more that I like, from the book “Markings,” that I found on a free books giveaway table here at school a few weeks ago:

“To say Yes is never more difficult that when circumstances prevent you from rushing to the defense of someone whose purity of heart makes him defenseless before an attack.”

or

“Your position never gives you the right to command.   It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.”

I think that the spirit of this last quote should be drilled into the minds of all prospective and current teachers–K-12 AND University.

~ by lastcrazyhorn on September 12, 2009.