Careful Words

prospect (n.)

prospect (v.)

We 're charm'd with distant views of happiness,

But near approaches make the prospect less.

Yalden: Against Enjoyment.

Stands not within the prospect of belief.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.

The idea of her life shall sweetly creep

Into his study of imagination,

And every lovely organ of her life,

Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,

More moving-delicate and full of life

Into the eye and prospect of his soul.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Though every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile.

Reginald Heber (1783-1826): Missionary Hymn.

  The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road that leads him to England.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763.

  I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.

John Milton (1608-1674): Tractate of Education.

On a fair prospect some have looked,

And felt, as I have heard them say,

As if the moving time had been

A thing as steadfast as the scene

On which they gazed themselves away.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 16.