Femina prudens dicit auctoritatem veram non ex sola potestate, sed ex fide civium nasci.

It has two parts:

Main clause: Femina prudens dicit
A wise woman says

Indirect statement: auctoritatem veram non ex sola potestate, sed ex fide civium nasci
This is what she says.

A very common Latin pattern after verbs like dicit is:

verb of saying/thinking + accusative subject + infinitive verb

So the sentence is built around an indirect statement, not a direct quotation.

Because prudens is a third-declension adjective with the same nominative singular form for masculine and feminine.

So:

• vir prudens = a wise man
• femina prudens = a wise woman

The feminine is shown by femina, not by changing prudens to a different nominative singular ending.

Because it is the subject of an indirect statement after dicit.

In English, we say:

She says that true authority is born...

In Latin, instead of using that, Classical Latin usually uses:

• a subject in the accusative
• a verb in the infinitive

So auctoritatem veram is the logical subject of nasci, even though grammatically it appears in the accusative.

Because it belongs to the indirect statement after dicit.

After verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, perceiving, and so on, Latin often uses the accusative-and-infinitive construction:

• dicit = she says
• auctoritatem veram ... nasci = that true authority is born / arises

If this were a direct statement instead, Latin would use a normal finite verb, such as:

Auctoritas vera non ex sola potestate, sed ex fide civium nascitur.

Yes. Nasci literally means to be born, but it is also commonly used more broadly to mean:

• to arise
• to come into being
• to originate

So here it refers to the origin of true authority, not literal physical birth.

Because nasci is a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs have passive-looking forms but active meanings.
So although nasci looks like a passive infinitive, it means actively:

to be born / to arise / to come into being

Its dictionary form is nascor, nasci, natus sum.

Because both are governed by ex.

The preposition ex means out of, from, and it takes the ablative case.

So:

• ex sola potestate = from power alone
• ex fide civium = from the trust/faith of the citizens

This use of ex shows source or origin.

Because sola agrees with potestate.

• potestate is ablative singular feminine
• sola is also ablative singular feminine

So ex sola potestate means from power alone or from mere power alone.

The adjective must match the noun in gender, number, and case.

Because it depends on fide.

• fides can mean faith, trust, loyalty, confidence
• civium means of the citizens

So fide civium means the trust/faith/loyalty of the citizens.

This is a very common genitive use: a noun modifying another noun, like the trust of the citizens.

Non ... sed ... is a standard Latin contrast pattern meaning:

not ... but ...

Here it contrasts two possible sources of authority:

• non ex sola potestate = not from power alone
• sed ex fide civium = but from the trust of the citizens

So Latin is setting one idea aside and replacing it with another.

Because Latin word order is much freer than English word order. Latin relies mainly on endings, not position, to show grammatical relationships.

A few things to notice here:

• Femina prudens puts the adjective after the noun, which is very common in Latin.
• auctoritatem veram also has noun + adjective.
• nasci comes at the end, which is also very common, especially in indirect statements.
• The contrast is made very clear by placing non ... sed ... around the two prepositional phrases.

So the order is not random; it helps highlight the structure and emphasis of the sentence.

A direct version would be:

Auctoritas vera non ex sola potestate, sed ex fide civium nascitur.

That means the same basic idea, but now:

• auctoritas vera is nominative, because it is the subject of a normal finite verb
• nascitur is a finite verb, not an infinitive

Comparing the two is a very good way to understand the indirect statement:

• direct: auctoritas vera ... nascitur
• indirect after dicit: auctoritatem veram ... nasci

Nasci is a present infinitive.

In an indirect statement, the present infinitive usually shows action happening at the same time as the main verb.

So after dicit, nasci suggests:

she says that true authority arises / is born

If Latin wanted to show earlier or later time in the indirect statement, it could use a different infinitive tense.