If only I may grow: firmer, simpler — quieter, warmer.

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961), the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, kept a private spiritual diary of brief reflections and aphoristic prayers written across his adult life and especially during the pressures of international service. The line “If only I may grow: firmer, simpler — quieter, warmer.” reflects that inward practice: a self-addressed aspiration toward steadiness and moral clarity amid responsibility, conflict, and public scrutiny. Such entries were not composed for publication; they were found among his papers after his death and issued as the posthumous volume *Markings* (Swedish: *Vägmärken*), which helped shape his reputation as a statesman with a disciplined contemplative life.

The sentence reads like a compact rule of inner formation. “Firmer” suggests integrity and resolve; “simpler” points to stripping away ego, distraction, and self-justifying complexity. “Quieter” implies restraint—an ability to listen, to act without noise or self-display—while “warmer” balances that restraint with compassion and human openness. The sequence sketches a mature ideal: strength without hardness, simplicity without naivety, silence without coldness. In Hammarskjöld’s idiom, growth is less about achievement than about character—becoming a clearer instrument for service, where authority is grounded in humility and empathy.