Friday, May 15, 2009

Thoughts for the Day: Bach and Hammarskjöld

First, a correction. I had narrowed the author of the quote I had in mind on Monday to two people--vastly different people, but either capable of the quote I was remembering. I guessed wrong. It was Richard Bach, writing in Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, who said:

Live
never to be
ashamed if anything you do
or say is published
around the world--
even if
what is published
is not true.
But my own book of markings, which borrows even its title from Hammarskjöld, is filled with his writings, and among them, one seems particularly apt today:
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 pray never to forget that.