Fool’s paradise

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Grammarist

A fool’s paradise is an illusory state of happiness, it is happiness based on delusions or illusions. The term is often rendered as the phrase living in a fool’s paradise, implying that the person referred to is perhaps deliberately ignoring reality. The phrase a fool’s paradise is first seen in the mid-1400s but is most famously noted in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet where the nurse says, “… but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behavior…” Note that the word fool’s is a singular possessive noun, the apostrophe comes before the s.

Examples

As for the social divide, these writers live in a fool’s paradise if they think that Penner exacerbated it and that Nepal was a harmonious place before Penner. (The Kathmandu Post)

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the opposition was living in fool’s paradise as they are demanding 70 answers from the prime minister. (Pakistan Today)

The truth is that those today who expect everything to go along the way they want it to, while they sit uncaring on the sidelines, are living in a fool’s paradise. (The Tahlequah Daily Press)

Badal said AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was living in “fool’s paradise” that he will rule Punjab, saying Kejriwal was not even “remotely associated” with ground realities in the state. (The Hindustan Times)

However, wildlife experts say if the officials still believe that the tigress is alive then they are living in a fool’s paradise. (The Times of India)

Now however Cllr Neville has fallen out of love with European politics, calling it a “fool’s paradise”, and the £197m a week Britain gives to the EU a “hell of a lot of money”. (The Enfield Independent)