"We must not let our passions destroy our dreams"
About this Quote
Monson’s line lands like a pastoral hand on the shoulder, the kind of counsel meant for the moment when desire feels righteous and immediate, and the long game starts to look negotiable. As a clergyman, he’s not warning against passion as joy or conviction; he’s warning against passion as weather: sudden, self-justifying, and surprisingly destructive when you build your life inside it.
The sentence is engineered to split the self in two. “Passions” are plural, impulsive, and hot; “dreams” are singular, owned, and future-facing. That contrast quietly argues for moral hierarchy: the best parts of you are the ones that can wait. “Must not let” frames agency as stewardship, not suppression. You’re not asked to kill desire, just to stop it from taking the wheel.
The subtext is distinctly Monson: a theology of self-mastery and deferred reward that fits Latter-day Saint cultural emphasis on discipline, family commitments, and choosing enduring covenants over short-term intensity. Read in that context, “dreams” are rarely vague fantasies; they’re the planned life - education, marriage, service, spiritual integrity. “Destroy” is the key verb: not “distract” or “delay,” but wreck, as if one reckless season can crater a decade of intention.
It works because it flatters responsibility without glamorizing shame. Passion isn’t demonized; it’s treated as powerful enough to require governance. That’s both a moral claim and a practical one, aimed at people trying to become who they already promised themselves they’d be.
The sentence is engineered to split the self in two. “Passions” are plural, impulsive, and hot; “dreams” are singular, owned, and future-facing. That contrast quietly argues for moral hierarchy: the best parts of you are the ones that can wait. “Must not let” frames agency as stewardship, not suppression. You’re not asked to kill desire, just to stop it from taking the wheel.
The subtext is distinctly Monson: a theology of self-mastery and deferred reward that fits Latter-day Saint cultural emphasis on discipline, family commitments, and choosing enduring covenants over short-term intensity. Read in that context, “dreams” are rarely vague fantasies; they’re the planned life - education, marriage, service, spiritual integrity. “Destroy” is the key verb: not “distract” or “delay,” but wreck, as if one reckless season can crater a decade of intention.
It works because it flatters responsibility without glamorizing shame. Passion isn’t demonized; it’s treated as powerful enough to require governance. That’s both a moral claim and a practical one, aimed at people trying to become who they already promised themselves they’d be.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Discipline |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
