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Tertullian

79 quotes

“Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Veritas autem docendo persuadet non suadendo docet.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (la)
“Nihil veritas erubescit”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Certum est, quia impossibile.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“De calcaria in carbonarium.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (la)
“Omnia periclitabuntur aliter accipi quam sunt, et amittere quod sunt dum aliter accipiuntur, si aliter quam sunt cognominantur. Fides nominum salus est proprietatum.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: De Resurrectione Carnis [Of the Resurrection of Flesh] Ch.1 as quoted in The Writings of Tertullian, Vol.2 Tr. Peter Holmes, as contained in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers dow…
“Qui fugiebat, rursus sibi proeliabitur.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nec religionis est cogere religionem”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dead bodies of their parents they cut up with their sheep, and devour at their feasts. They who have not died so as to become food for others, are thought to have died an accursed death. Their women are not by their sex softened to modesty. They uncover the breast, from which they suspend their battle-axes, and prefer warfare to marriage.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the Christian verity has distinctly declared this principle, “God is not, if He is not one;” because we more properly believe that that has no existence which is not as it ought to be.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But this argument you will try to shake with an objection from the name of God, by alleging that that name is a vague one, and applied to other beings also; as it is written, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods.” And again, “I have said, Ye are gods.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the first place, how arrogantly do the Marcionites build up their stupid system, bringing forward a new god, as if we were ashamed of the old one! So schoolboys are proud of their new shoes, but their old master beats their strutting vanity out of them.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What indeed tended so greatly to the knowledge of himself, as his appearing in the humiliation of the flesh,—a degradation all the lower indeed if the flesh were only illusory? For it was all the more shameful if he, who brought on himself the Creator’s curse by hanging on a tree, only pretended the assumption of a bodily substance.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Finally, take a circuit round your own self; survey man within and without. Even this handiwork of our God will be pleasing to you, inasmuch as your own lord, that better god, loved it so well, and for your sake was at the pains of descending from the third heaven to these poverty-stricken elements, and for the same reason was actually crucified in this sorry apartment of the Creator.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then, inasmuch as He too has fabricated a world out of some underlying material which is unbegotten, and unmade, and contemporaneous with God, just as Marcion holds of the Creator, you reduce this likewise to the dignity of that local space which has enclosed two gods, both God and matter.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Compare Thomas Jefferson's letter to John Adams, Monticello, Aug. 15, 1820
“Digna enim deo probabunt deum. Nos definimus deum primo natura cognoscendum, deinde doctrina recognoscendum, natura ex operibus, doctrina ex praedicationibus.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Galileo Galilei: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615
“Infirma commendatio est quae de alterius destructione fulcitur.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Itaque et ego vanitatem vanitate depellam.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cum ergo spiritus Dei descendit, indiuidua patientia comitatur eum.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Quippe res dei ratio quia deus omnium conditor nihil non ratione providit disposuit ordinavit, nihil [enim] non ratione tractari intellegique voluit. [3] Igitur ignorantes quique deum rem quoque eius ignorent necesse est quia nullius omnino thesaurus extraneis patet. Itaque universam vitae conversationem sine gubernaculo rationis transfretantes inminentem saeculo procellam evitare non norunt.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Qui si ipse deus est secundum Ioannem - Deus erat sermo - habes duos, alium dicentem ut fiat, alium facientem. Alium autem quomodo accipere debeas iam professus sum, personae non substantiae nomine, ad distinctionem non ad divisionem.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ergo, inquis, si deus dixit et deus fecit, si alius deus dixit et alius fecit, duo dii praedicantur. Si tam durus es, puta interim. Et ut adhuc amplius hoc putes, accipe et in psalmo duos deos dictos: Thronus tuus, deus, in aevum, virga regni tui; dilexisti iustitiam et odisti iniquitatem, propterea unxit te deus, deus tuus.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Igitur unus deus pater, et absque eo alius non est: quod ipse inferens non filium negat sed alium deum: ceterum alius a patre filius non est.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Si filium nolunt secundum a patre reputari ne secundus duos faciat deos dici, ostendimus etiam duos deos in scriptura relatos et duos dominos: et tamen ne de isto scandalizentur, rationem reddimus qua dei non duo dicantur nec domini sed qua pater et filius duo, et hoc non ex separatione substantiae sed ex dispositione, cum individuum et inseparatum filium a patre pronuntiamus, nec statu sed gradu alium, qui etsi deus dicatur quando nominatur singularis, non ideo duos deos faciat sed unum, hoc ipso quod et deus ex unitate patris vocari habeat.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Igitur benedicti, quos gratia dei expectat, cum de illo sanctissimo lavacro novi natalis ascenditis et primas manus apud matrem cum fratribus aperitis, petite de patre, petite de domino, peculia gratiae, distributiones charismatum subiacere. Petite et accipietis, inquit. Quaesistis enim et invenistis, pulsastis et apertum est vobis. Tantum oro, ut cum petitis etiam Tertulliani peccatoris memineritis.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Notorious, too, are the dealings of heretics with swarms of magicians and charlatans and astrologers and philosophers — all, of course, devotees of speculation. You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Prescriptions Against the Heretics as translated by Stanley Lawrence Greenslade, in Early Latin Theology: Selections from Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and Jerome (1956), p. 63
“What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? (Quid ergo Athenae Hierosolymis?)”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[S]ome men are very bad, and some very good; but yet the souls of all form but one genus: even in the worst there is something good, and in the best there is something bad. ... Just as no soul is without sin, so neither is any soul without seeds of good.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fiunt non nascuntur Christiani”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even when the ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent mass; the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun—there is no division of substance, but merely an extension. Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, as light of light is kindled.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Esterni sumus, & vestra omnia implevimus, Vrbes, Insulas, Castella, Municipia, Conciliabula, Castra ipsa, Tribus, Decurias, palatium, Senatum, Forum, sola vobis relinquimus Templa.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In pursuit of gain, men have begun to consider their violence an article to be bought and sold.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We [Christians] have no pressing inducement to take part in your public meetings; nor is there anything more entirely foreign to us than affairs of state. We acknowledge one all-embracing commonwealth—the world.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant; ipsi enim invicem oderunt: et ut pro alterutro mori sint parati; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Neque enim Brachmanae aut Indorum gymnosophistae sumus, silvicolae et exules vitae. Meminimus gratiam debere nos deo domino creatori; nullum fructum operum eius repudiamus, plane temperamus, ne[c] ultra modum aut perperam utamur. Itaque non sine foro, non sine macello, non sine balneis tabernis officinis stabulis nundinis vestris ceterisque commerciis cohabitamus in hoc saeculo.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis christianorum.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And thus to the present moment they affirm that their Christ is not come, because He is not come in majesty; while they are ignorant of the fact that He was first to come in humility.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But our Lord Christ has surnamed Himself Truth, not Custom. If Christ is always, and prior to all, equally truth is a thing sempiternal and ancient. Let those therefore look to themselves, to whom that is new which is intrinsically old. It is not so much novelty as truth which convicts heresies. Whatever savours of opposition to truth, this will be heresy, even (if it be an) ancient custom.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ceterum purpura uel cetera insignia dignitatum et potestatum insertae dignitati et potestatibus idololatriae ab initio dicata habent profanationis suae maculam, cum praeterea ipsis etiam idolis induantur praetextae et trabeae et laticlaui, fasces quoque et uirgae praeferantur, et merito. Nam daemonia magistratus sunt saeculi huius ; unius collegii insignia fasces et purpuras gestant.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The argument for Christian practices becomes all the stronger, when also nature, which is the first rule of all, supports them. Well, she is the first who lays it down that a crown does not become the head.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But everything which is against nature deserves to be branded as monstrous among all men; but with us it is to be condemned also as sacrilege against God, the Lord and Creator of nature.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heretics do away with marriages; Psychics accumulate them. The former marry not even once; the latter not only once. What dost thou, Law of the Creator? Between alien eunuchs and thine own grooms, thou complainest as much of the over-obedience of thine own household as of the contempt of strangers.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source