Ní ar lín óc brister cath.

(not * according to * number * of warriors * is broken * a battle)

Numbers alone don’t win a battle.

A maxim from “Diambad messe bad rí réil”. In an entry for the year 649 in the Mionannala (Egerton Annals, p. 397 in “Silva Gadelica”), Diarmait tells Cuimín Fota “nach ar líon na cruth brister cath acht amail as áil ra Dia” (“that it is not by numbers or appearance that a battle is won but by the will of God”). The opposite view is found in a maxim quoted in the Annals of the Four Masters in an entry for the year 1593: “Luighidh iolar ar uathadh” (“Many overpower few”), or in the English saying, “Providence fights on the side of big batallions”.

Topics: Maxims & Wise Counsel War