Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible not to run away.

The line frames courage not as heroic excess but as fidelity to one’s actual capacity. “Life” is imagined as asking only what a person already has—no more than the strength available in the moment—so the moral demand is stripped of grandiosity. The “only one feat” is simply to stay present: not to flee from responsibility, suffering, or truth. In this sense, endurance becomes an ethical act, and steadfastness is elevated above dramatic triumphs. The quote resonates with Hammarskjöld’s austere spirituality and his emphasis on inner discipline: the decisive struggle is often internal, and the most meaningful victory may be refusing evasion.