Tertullian > Quotes

“How beautiful, then, the marriage of two Christians, two who are one in home, one in desire, one in the way of life they follow, one in the religion they practice . . . Nothing divides them either in flesh or in spirit . . . They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another. Side by side they visit God's church and partake God's banquet, side by side they face difficulties and persecution, share their consolations. They have no secrets from one another; they never shun each other's company; they never bring sorrow to each other's hearts . . . Seeing this Christ rejoices. To such as these He gives His peace. Where there are two together, there also He is present.”
― Tertullian

“The first reaction to truth is hatred.”
― Tertullian

“He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies”
― Tertullian

“If the Tiber rises too high, or the Nile too low, the remedy is always feeding Christians to the lions.”
― Tertullian

“Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.”
― Quintus Septimius Tertullianus

“Now we allow that life begins with conception, because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does.”
― Tertullian, A Treatise On The Soul

“You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.”
― Tertullian

“It is certain because it is impossible”
― Tertullian

“For it is really better for us not to know a thing, because [God] has not revealed it to us, than to know it according to man’s wisdom, because he has been bold enough to assume it.”
― Tertullian, A Treatise On The Soul

“Hope is patience with the lamp lit”
― Tertullian

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
― Tertullian

“Wide are men’s inquiries into uncertainties; wider still are their disputes about conjectures.”
― Tertullian, A Treatise On The Soul

“You say we worship the sun; so do you.”
― Tertullian

“Certum est, quia impossible est.”
― Tertullian

“Truth and the hatred of truth come into our world together. As soon as truth appears, it is regarded as an enemy.”
― Tertullian, The Apology

“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem.”
― Tertullian

“Surely it is obvious enough, if one looks at the whole world, that it is becoming daily better cultivated and more fully peopled than anciently. All places are now accessible, all are well known, all open to commerce; most pleasant farms have obliterated all traces of what were once dreary and dangerous wastes; cultivated fields have subdued forests; flocks and herds have expelled wild beasts; sandy deserts are sown; rocks are planted; marshes are drained; and where once were hardly solitary cottages, there are now large cities. No longer are (savage) islands dreaded, nor their rocky shores feared; everywhere are houses, and inhabitants, and settled government, and civilized life. What most frequently meets our view (and occasions complaint), is our teeming population: our numbers are burdensome to the world, which can hardly supply us from its natural elements; our wants grow more and more keen, and our complaints more bitter in all mouths, whilst Nature fails in affording us her usual sustenance. In very deed, pestilence, and famine, and wars, and earthquakes have to be regarded as a remedy for nations, as the means of pruning the luxuriance of the human race. . . .”
― Tertullian, A Treatise On The Soul

“Examine then, and see if He be not the dispenser of kingdoms, who is Lord at once of the world which is ruled, and of man himself who rules; if He have not ordained the changes of dynasties, with their appointed seasons, who was before all time, and made the world a body of times; if the rise and the fall of states are not the work of Him, under whose sovereignty the human race once existed without states at all.”
― Tertullian, The Apology

“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”
― Tertullian

“Credere quia absurdum est”
― Tertullian

“I believe because it is absurd.”
― Tertullian, On The Flesh Of Christ

“Men remain in ignorance as long as they hate, and they hate unjustly as long as they remain in ignorance.”
― Tertullian

“There is no public entertainment which does not inflict spiritual damage.”
― Tertullian

“In one sense there will be something difficult even for God — namely, that which He has not done — not because He could not, but because He would not, do it. For with God, to be willing is to be able, and to be unwilling is to be unable; all that He has willed, however, He has both been able to accomplish, and has displayed His ability.”
― Tertullian, Against Praxeas

“But how will a Christian engage in war—indeed, how will a Christian even engage in military service during peacetime—without the sword, which the Lord has taken away? For although soldiers had approached John to receive instructions and a centurion believed, this does not change the fact that afterward, the Lord, by disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier.

Under no circumstances should a true Christian draw the sword.”
― Tertullian

“But now inquiry is being made concerning these issues. First, can any believer enlist in the military? Second, can any soldier, even those of the rank and file or lesser grades who neither engage in pagan sacrifices nor capital punishment, be admitted into the church? No on both counts—for there is no agreement between the divine sacrament and the human sacrament, the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil, the camp of light and the camp of darkness. One soul cannot serve two masters—God and Caesar…But how will a Christian engage in war—indeed, how will a Christian even engage in military service during peacetime—without the sword, which the Lord has taken away? For although soldiers had approached John to receive instructions and a centurion believed, this does not change the fact that afterward, the Lord, by disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier.”

“Under no circumstances should a true Christian draw the sword.”
― Tertullian

“Truth does not blush.”
― Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullian

“Renounce we things carnal, that we may at length bear fruits spiritual. Seize the opportunity — albeit not earnestly desired, yet favourable — of not having any one to whom to pay a debt, and by whom to be (yourself) repaid! You have ceased to be a debtor. Happy man! You have released your debtor; sustain the loss. What if you come to feel that what we have called a loss is a gain? For continence will be a mean whereby you will traffic in a mighty substance of sanctity; by parsimony of the flesh you will gain the Spirit. For let us ponder over our conscience itself, (to see) how different a man feels himself when he chances to be deprived of his wife. He savours spiritually. If he is making prayer to the Lord, he is near heaven. If he is bending over the Scriptures, he is wholly in them. If he is singing a psalm, he satisfies himself. If he is adjuring a demon, he is confident in himself.”
― Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity

“We live in the world with you. We do not forsake forum or bath or workshop, or inn, or market, or any other place of commerce. We sail with you, fight with you, farm with you.”
― Tertullian, Tertullian: Apology, De Spectaculis, And, Minucius Felix

“Tant il est vrai qu'aucune naissance n'est pure, des païens veux-je dire. De là vient que l'Apôtre déclare « que les deux sexes ayant été sanctifiés, engendrent des saints, non moins par la prérogative de la semence, que par la loi de l'institution. D'ailleurs, ajoute-t-il, ils naîtraient impurs; » comme voulant faire entendre que les enfants des fidèles sont désignés néanmoins à la sainteté, et conséquemment au salut, afin que par le gage de cette espérance, il vînt en aide aux mariages, qu'il avait jugé à propos de maintenir. D'ailleurs il se souvient de l'oracle du Seigneur: « Quiconque ne renaîtra point de l'eau et de l'esprit, ne pourra entrer dans le royaume de Dieu. »”
― Tertullian of Carthage