Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.

Hammarskjöld frames “destiny” not as a prize to chase or a threat to flee, but as a reality to be met with disciplined acceptance. The paradox—mysterious yet “not contrary to reason”—suggests that meaning in history is not fully transparent to human understanding, but neither is it irrational or arbitrary. Read this way, the line aligns with a moral-spiritual stoicism: one should act responsibly within one’s limits, without trying to coerce outcomes or despair over what cannot be controlled. The final clause implies a faith (not necessarily doctrinal) that human events participate in a larger intelligibility, even when that intelligibility is only partially grasped.