Bonhoeffer on Desire

I don’t share Diogenes‘ opinion that the absence of desire is the highest joy and an empty barrel the ideal vessel; why should we foolishly believe what we know is not true? But I do believe that, especially when one is still younger, it can be very good to have to renounce one’s wishes for a time; only I find it dare not reach the point that the desires die off altogether and one become resigned. But this danger does not yet exist in any way with me at present.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Tegel Prison, letter to his parents, October 4, 1943 (DBW-RE, p. 146)