Near the end of the film, as the Wizard of Oz is about to launch his balloon to take Dorothy back to Kansas, he says this:
Quote:
I, your Wizard par ardua ad alta, am about to embark upon a hazardous and technically unexplainable journey into the outer stratosphere.
What does the Latin mean?
prolly should be, per ardua ad alta.
through hard work, to the heights (to the stars should be ad astra)
The quote was taken from a free on-line script archive. Caveat lector!
Anyway, thanks for the translation. Per ardua ad alta. Seem so obvious, now that I know what it means.
Hydra, could you post the link to that archive? I'd love to look through it.
This is possibly an intentional "mangling" of the Kansas state motto "Ad astra per aspera" to further illustrate his "humbug-osity" since he is claims to be "an old Kansas man myself...born and bred in the heart of the western wilderness".
If you google, the phrase "per ardua ad alta", you'll see it's a variant on the RAF motto, per ardua ad astra, and, supposedly, the family motto of the Hanna family.