ruling passion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nostalgia maintains its grip on the imagination and dominates as the ruling passion, he says, after greed, anger and resistance to authority.
From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2016
One article written after Heenan left America tut-tutted that his "ruling passion is the love of money" rather than love of country.
From Slate • May 5, 2010
The Times of London, says he is one of the most noteworthy of British Prime Ministers—an idealist and a pacifist guiding the country when idealism and pacifism are not the ruling passion of the world.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The religious theme of Helena runs close to the ruling passion of Waugh's life, his adopted Roman Catholicism�perhaps too close to it.
From Time Magazine Archive
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At first he fancied that the old man's love of music--which was to him, who did not know one note from another, a separate marvel--might have been the motive: the ruling passion strong in death.
From Agincourt The Works of G. P. R. James, Volume XX by James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)