Tertullian quotes - page 2

If we rejoice with the world, there is reason to fear that with the world we shall grieve too. But when the world rejoices, let us grieve; and when the world afterward grieves, we shall rejoice. (Tertullian)
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. View quote
Tertullian
The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Tertullian
The first reaction to truth is hatred. View quote
Tertullian
See how these Christians love one another. View quote
Tertullian
He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies. View quote
Tertullian
What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? View quote
Tertullian
You cannot parcel out freedom in pieces because freedom is all or nothing. (Tertullian)
Fear is the foundation of safety. View quote
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. View quote
Tertullian
The more you mow us down, the more numerous we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. View quote
Tertullian
Prevention of birth is a precipitation of murder. View quote
Tertullian
Truth engenders hatred of truth. As soon as it appears, it is the enemy. View quote
Tertullian
Divorce these days is a religious vow, as if the proper offspring of marriage. View quote
Tertullian
Arguments about Scripture achieve nothing but a stomachache and a headache. View quote
Tertullian
Indeed it is better to postpone, lest either we complete too little by hurrying, or wander too long in completing it. View quote
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. View quote
Tertullian
Of little worth is the recommendation which has for its prop the defamation of another. (Tertullian)
I shall dispel one empty story by another. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Tertullian