Melius Consilium Quam Vires
Consilio utilius quam viribus arma geruntur;
Militis est robur, consiliumque ducis.
Source: Michaelis Verinus (c.1469-c.1487), Disticha. Meter: Elegiac. Note that the neuter utilius is being used adverbially here: "more usefully, more productively."
Weapons are better wielded (utilius arma geruntur) with planning (consilio) than with force (quam viribus); strength belongs to the soldier (militis est robur), and planning to the commander (consiliumque ducis).
The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:
rōbur (rōboris, n.): oak, tough core, strength
arma -ōrum n. pl.: arms
cōnsilium -ī n.: plan; council, group of advisors
dux ducis m./f.: leader, general
gero gerere gessī gestum: bear, manage; bellum gerere, wage war
melior -ius: better
mīles -itis m.: soldier
quam: how?; (after comparative) than
que: and (enclitic)
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
utilis -e: useful
vīs f.: force; (acc.) vim, (abl.) vī; (pl.) vīrēs, strength
