Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Q is for quid and quo.

Q
quid pro quo kwid prō kwō 
     noun
     1. Latin: something for something else. As in winking at a uranium deal in exchange for $500,000 given to a favorite charity.

quidquid pro quo kwid-kwid prō kwō 
     noun
     1. Latin: practically everything for something else. As in selling your entire political platform in exchange $500,000,000.

To paraphrase Horace

     Qui cupiet, metuet quoque, porro
que metuens vivet, liber mihi non erit umquam.
perdidit arma, locum Virtutis deseruit, qui
semper in augenda festinat et obruitur potestati.

     Those that want also fear,
and those that live in fear will never be free.
The man always in a hurry, obsessed
by more and more power has, running away
from where Virtue posted him, lost his shield.

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