primrose path

Noun

primrose path (plural primrose paths)

1. An easy and pleasant life; a self-indulgent or hedonistic life; such a life that leads to damnation.
   • But, good my brother, / Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; / Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, / And recks not his own rede.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
   • Many men in his position would have preferred the primrose path of dalliance to the steep heights of duty; but Lord Arthur was too conscientious to set pleasure above principle.1891, Oscar Wilde, “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”, in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
2. A deceptively easy or appealing course of action that leads one astray or into error.
   • The route from the desire for rationality via the desire for objectivity to descriptivism is a well trodden one; but it is nevertheless a primrose path; for, as we shall see, it leads those who follow it into one or another form of relativism, which is precisely what these thinkers are trying to...
   • This primrose path starts from the assumption that the only way to achieve rationality is to secure objectivity.1986, Stuart Shanker, Philosophy in Britain Today, page 118
3. (euphemistic) The life of prostitution.
   • Even if these purely official catastrophes carried any conviction, the majority of English girls remain so poor, so dependent, so well aware that the drudgeries of such honest work as is within their reach are likely enough to lead them eventually to lung disease, premature death, and domestic...1902, George Bernard Shaw, The Author's Apology, in (1902 edition of) Mrs Warren's Profession, 2006 Gutenberg eBook edition
   • She is now, at the age of 17, faced with turning from the straight and narrow path she has so far trod to the primrose path of her mother and grandmother.1940 March 25, “Movie of the Week: Primrose Path”, in Life, page 48