Tertullian Quotes
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Let the emperor make war on heaven; let him lead heaven captive in his triumph; let him put guards on heaven; let him impose taxes on heaven! He cannot. . . . He gets his sceptre where he first got his humanity; his power where he got the breath of life.
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Illustrious confessors of Jesus Christ, a Christian finds in prison the same joys as the prophets tasted in the desert. Call it not a dungeon, but a solitude. When the soul is in heaven, the body feels not the weight of fetters; it carries the whole man along with it.
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Nature is schoolmistress, the soul the pupil; and whatever one has taught or the other has learned has come from God - the Teacher of the teacher.
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I believe because it is absurd.
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Where our joy is, there should our work be.
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What has Athens to do with Jerusalem.
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In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the foetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier mankilling; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in the seed.
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Discipline is an index to doctrine.
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All the Scriptures give clear proof of the Trinity, and it is from these that our principle is deduced...the distinction of the Trinity is quite clearly displayed.
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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.
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The blood of Christians is seed.
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When we are going to enter the water ... in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, his pomp, and his angels. After this we are immersed three times, making a somewhat larger pledge than the Lord appointed in the Gospel. Then we are taken up a reference to the Roman tradition of recognizing a newborn baby as a member of the family. We first taste a mixture of milk and honey and from that day we refrain from the daily bath for a whole week.
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Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent Persons, who are yet distinct One from Another. These three are one thing, not one Person, as it is said, 'I and my Father are One,' in respect of unity of substance not singularity of number.
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Enoch predicted that "the demons and the spirits of the angelic apostates would turn into idolatry all the elements, all the adornment of the universe, and all things contained in the heaven, the sea, and the earth, that they might be consecrated as God in opposition to God." All things, therefore, does human error worship, except the Founder of all himself. The images of those things are idols; the consecration of the images is idolatry.
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The Christian does not hurt even his enemy.
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You cannot parcel out freedom in pieces because freedom is all or nothing.
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How many men of rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from devils, and healed of diseases!
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Now then, you dogs, whom the apostle puts outside and who yelp at the God of truth, let us come to your various questions.
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It is not consistent with truth that a man should sacrifice half of his stomach only to God-that he should be sober in drinking, but intemperate in eating. Your belly is your God, your liver is your temple, your paunch is your altar, the cook is your priest, and the fat steam is your Holy Spirit; the seasonings and the sauces are your chrisms, and your belchings are your prophesizing...such a grossly- feeding Christian is akin to lions and wolves rather than God. Our Lord Jesus called Himself Truth and not habit.
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Can we not live without pleasure, who cannot but with pleasure die?
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What is nobler than to tread under foot the gods of the nations, to exorcise evil spirits, to perform cures, to seek divine revelations, and to live to God? These are the pleasures - these are the spectacles - that befit Christian men.
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God the Father's a deep root; the Son's the shoot that breaks into the world; the Spirit spreads the beauty & fragrance.
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Daily, every moment, prayer is necessary to men.
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Truth engenders hatred of truth. As soon as it appears, it is the enemy.