Too big to fail and too big for the law

Then he [the judge]ordered that a mosquito be hanged without further ado and that it be drawn and quartered because the unfortunate thing had fallen into the net of the law. But to an elephant that had trammeled over them all, without distinguishing between human and divine laws, he doffed his hat to him as he passed by, weighed down with prohibited weapons, fire arms, good lances, lock pics, and pikes. And he also told him that even though he was doing his rounds, if he were obliged, all his ministers would go accompany him and drop him off at his cave.

(From El Criticón by Baltasar Gracián, Crisi VI, Volume I: In the Springtime of Childhood, p. 141)


Mandó luego ahorcar, sin más apelación, un mosquito y que lo hiciesen cuartos porque había caído el desdichado en la red de la ley. Pero a un elefante que las había atropellado todas, sin perdonar humanas ni divinas, le hizo una gran bonetada al pasar cargado de armas prohibidas, bocas de fuego, buenas lanzas, ganzúas, chuzones, y aun le dijo que aunque estaba de ronda, si era servido, le irían acompañando todos sus ministros hasta dejarle en su cueva.

(El Criticón, Crisi VI, TOMO I: En la primavera de la niñez, p.141)