Tertullian quotes - page 2

Tertullian was an early Christian author and theologian from Carthage, often called the "father of Latin Christianity." His writings laid important foundations for Western Christian doctrine and introduced terms such as "Trinity." He is remembered for his powerful apologetic works and distinctive style. Here are 73 of his quotes:

We renounce all your spectacles, as strongly as we renounce the matters originating them, which we know were conceived of superstition, when we give up the very things which are the basis of their representations. Among us nothing is ever said, or seen, or heard, which has anything in common with the madness of the circus, the immodesty of the theatre, the atrocities of the arena, the useless exercises of the wrestling-ground.

Tertullian

The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry.

Tertullian

Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason - nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world.

Tertullian

We are not Indian Brahmins or Gymnosophists, who dwell in woods and exile themselves from ordinary human life. We do not forget the debt of gratitude we owe to God, our Lord and Creator; we reject no creature of His hands, though certainly we exercise restraint upon ourselves, lest of any gift of His we make an immoderate or sinful use. So we sojourn with you in the world.

Tertullian

Why lean upon a blind guide, if you have eyes of your own? Why be clothed by one who is naked, if you have put on Christ? Why use the shield of another, when the apostle gives you armour of your own? It would be better for him to learn from you to acknowledge the resurrection of the flesh, than for you from him to deny it; because if Christians must needs deny it, it would be sufficient if they did so from their own knowledge, without any instruction from the ignorant multitude.

Tertullian

The first reaction to truth is hatred.

Tertullian

See how these Christians love one another.

Tertullian

He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.

Tertullian

What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?

Tertullian

Fear is the foundation of safety.

Tertullian

The pleasure of those who injure you lies in your pain. Therefore they will suffer if you take away their pleasure by not feeling pain.

Tertullian

The more you mow us down, the more numerous we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.

Tertullian

Prevention of birth is a precipitation of murder.

Tertullian

Truth engenders hatred of truth. As soon as it appears, it is the enemy.

Tertullian

Divorce these days is a religious vow, as if the proper offspring of marriage.

Tertullian

Arguments about Scripture achieve nothing but a stomachache and a headache.

Tertullian

Indeed it is better to postpone, lest either we complete too little by hurrying, or wander too long in completing it.

Tertullian

Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues. Every country has its own language, yet the subjects of which the untutored soul speaks are the same everywhere.

Tertullian

I shall dispel one empty story by another.

Tertullian

Now if He too is God, according to John, (who says.) "The Word was God," then you have two, One that commands that the thing be made. and the Other that makes. In what sense, however, you ought to understand Him to be another I have already explained, on the ground of Personality, not of Substance, in the way of distinction, not of division.

Tertullian

We are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled all the places that belong to you - cities, islands, forts, towns, exchanges; the military camps themselves, tribes, town councils, the palace, the senate, the market-place; we have left you nothing but your temples.

Tertullian

See, they say, how they love one another, for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death.

Tertullian