fond illusion

It is a statistic which illustrates Trimble's underrated value and neatly explodes the fond illusion of Ulster grinding their way to victory with a narrow, kicking-obsessed game plan.

I, my noble lord, state my solemn belief that this terrible weapon which the government holds in its hand might in the last extremity prevent the loss of the island, and that if the inhabitants are persuaded that it will be used they will trouble and renounce every fond illusion rather than draw down such an anathema.

Stop, cruel maid, nor wound thy Publius more; I dread the fatal frankness of thy words: Spare me the pain of knowing I am scorn'd; And if thy heart's devoted to another, Yet do not tell it me; in tender pity Do not, my fair, dissolve the fond illusion, The dear delightful visions I have form'd Of future joy, and fond exhaustless love.

I wept for you, and still I wondered If all I had grown to see in you and find in you And love in you was just a fond illusion— If after all I had not seen you aright as a boy: Barbaric, hard, suspicious, cruel, redeemed Alone by bubbling animal spirits— Even these gone now, all of you smoke Laden with stinging gas and lethal vapor....

As time passed, and the sage turned his thoughts to a more rigid enforcement of his renunciations, it was no easy task for a devoted wife to provide comfort for him without shaking him too rudely out of his fond illusion that he was enduring privations.