friends in high places

Meaning: (idiomatic)Friends who haveauthorityorinfluenceand who can ensure that one'sinterestswill beprotectedorfurthered.1913,E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 10, inThe Mischief Maker:"Herr Freudenberg himself has great friends here,friends in high places. He will see that nothing happens."1987November 30, “War Crimes: Long Road To Justice”, inTime‎[1], retrieved18 May 2015:In recent years he was protected byfriends in high places.2000June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, inAmerica‎[2], volume182, number21:Being far from the distant throne, we little people need more important people to plead our cause and obtain spiritual and material blessings. We needfriends in high places, so to speak. Because she is the Mother of the Lord, Mary is the most powerful intercessor of all, obtaining gifts that might otherwise be denied.2006April 1, Phillip Alder, “On a Day Made for Tricks, Lots of Ways to Get Them All”, inNew York Times‎[3], retrieved18 May 2015:In Petrograd they were in great danger but had manyfriends in high places, and with money for bribes they avoided arrest.2008, “More News From Nowhere”, inDig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:I walk into the corner of my room / See myfriends in high places/ I don't know which is which or who is whom / They've stolen each other's faces

Examples:

EN: He'd be less brazen without his friends in high places.
ES: No sería tan descarado sin sus amigos en las altas esferas.
EN: You'll have to make friends in high places, those working in big businesses, smart people who can find something for you.
ES: Deberás hacer amigos en las altas esferas, que trabajen en grandes empresas, personas inteligentes que pueden encontrar algo para ti.
EN: The lady seems to have friends in high places.
ES: La señora parece tener amigos en las altas esferas.
EN: Goes to show you, if you work hard and have friends in high places...
ES: Eso te demuestra que si trabajas duro y tienes amigos importantes...
EN: Because even in hell there are people with friends in high places.
ES: Porque hasta en el infierno hay categorías.
EN: I don't look like it, but I have friends in high places.
ES: Quizá no lo parezca, pero tengo amigos importantes.
EN: - Nothing, he has friends in high places.
ES: - Nada, él tiene muchos contactos.
EN: I have friends in high places.
ES: Tengo amigos ricos en lugares importantes.
EN: You have friends in high places, and science is supposed to have all the answers.
ES: Tiene amigos en las altas esferas. Y se espera de la Ciencia que dé todas las respuestas.
EN: Let's say I got friends in high places.
ES: Tengo amigos en las altas esferas.
EN: On behalf of Loyola University, let me welcome you to the Dawn Soul Patrol! The Civics course designed for those students without friends in high places.
ES: Bienvenidos a... la Patrulla del Alma, un curso de cívica... para los que no tengan amigos poderosos.
EN: I knew you had some friends in high places, but a congratulatory note from the United States Navy?
ES: Sé que tienes amigos influyentes pero, ¿una felicitación de la Armada de EE.UU.?
EN: And since he's got friends in high places, we are politely required to mind our own business, bums, strikers, hippies and students.
ES: Y desde que tiene amistades en las altas instancias, ...nos informan de buenas maneras de que nos ocupemos de nuestros asuntos, ...vagabundos, huelguistas, hippies y estudiantes.
EN: But I do have friends in high places.
ES: Pero tengo amigos en las altas esferas.
EN: Because he has friends in high places, Tom.
ES: Porque tiene amistades en las altas esferas, Tom.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).