Initium Est Necessarium
Omnia principiis constant; coepisse necesse est:
Quidquid ages, coeptas res iuvat ipse deus.
Source: Johann Glandorp (1501-1564), Disticha, 191. Meter: Elegiac.
All things agree with their beginnings; to start is essential: whatever you do, God himself favors enterprises that have started.
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:
necessārius, -a, -um: essential, necessary
agō agere ēgī āctum: drive, do, act
coepī coepisse coeptus: have begun
cōnstō -stāre -stitī: agree; constat, it is established that (+ infin.)
deus -ī m.; dea -ae f. god; goddess
initium -iī n.: beginning
ipse ipsa ipsum: him- her- itself
iuvō iuvāre iūvī iūtum: help, assist; please, delight
necesse (indecl. adj.): necessary
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
principium -iī n.: beginning
quisquis quidquid: whoever, whichever
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
