Or think ye that ye will enter paradise while yet there hath not come unto you the like of (that which came to) those who passed away before you? Affliction and adversity befell them, they were shaken as with earthquake, till the messenger (of Allah) and those who believed along with him said: When cometh Allah’s help? Now surely Allah’s help is nigh. Koran 2:214
Reader must understand that in possession and thraldom of a nymphet the enchanted traveller stands, as it were, beyond happiness. For there is no other bliss on earth comparable to that of fondling a nymphet. It is hors concours, that bliss, it belongs to another class, another plane of sensitivity. Despite our tiffs, despite her nastiness, despite all the fuss and faces she made, and the vulgarity, and the danger and the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise – a paradise whose skies were the colour of hell-flames – but still a paradise. Vladimir Nabokov
An island paradise teeming with life. But they soon found out this new-found wealth was exhaustible. Natural World s25e9: Hawaii: Message in the Waves, BBC 2017
Of all the ecosystems they depended on, the reef was the most important and the most fragile. ibid.
About a million residents but a further seven million people arrive each year for a few weeks in paradise. ibid.
‘Call some place paradise and kiss it goodbye, yeah?’ ibid.
Here I am – paradise. Got everything I want but it doesn’t add up to shit. ’Cause I fell in love with the wrong man. Be careful who you love. Trailer Park Boys, Countdown to Liquor Day, Mr Lahey, 2009