the royal road

royal road (to something)

A particularly smooth, easy, or trouble-free journey or development (to some status, position, or result). Each year, people flock to Hollywood hoping to find the royal road to fame and fortune. His family's wealth and status put him on the royal road to success from the moment he was born.
See also: road, royal
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the royal road

A way or method that presents no difficulties: the royal road to success.
See also: road, royal
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • royal road (to something)
  • (as) slick as a whistle
  • slick
  • slick as a whistle
  • be plain sailing
  • sailing
  • plain sailing
  • silky
  • silky smooth
  • (as) smooth as a baby's bottom
References in periodicals archive
It was an unforgettable prelude to the Pope's final exhortation to "follow Christ on the royal road of the Cross".
WYD: Wild Youth Day a report
Who would deny that liberals them selves have also planned and paved the royal road to this "end" of history?
"Tis time to part": breaking away from bipartisan barbarism
For Roosevelt knew, as all leaders know, that the royal road to a person's heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most." [3] If you are planning to go to a cocktail party at an ACPE meeting, be sure you have read at least the current issue of Physician Executive so you have possible topics of conversation.
Networking - getting to know more people
For that reason, he wrote, "the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind."
Brains in Dreamland Scientists hope to raise the neural curtain on sleep's virtual theater