Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 21
Works
Apologeticus
Tertullian
Tertullian:
41
quotes
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Famous Tertullian Quotes
“It is to be believed because it is absurd.”
Prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est. / Certum est, quia impossibile.
Variant translations
It is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd.
It is is entirely credible, because it is inept.
It is certain because it is impossible.
De Carne Christi 5.4
Often paraphrased or misquoted as "Credo quia absurdum."
Also paraphrased as "It is so extraordinary that it must be true."
Two lines from De Carne Christi have often become conflated into the statement: "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible), which can be perceived as a distortion of the actual arguments that Tertullian was making.
“Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.”
Veritas autem docendo persuadet non suadendo docet.
Adversus Valentinianos (Against the Valentinians), 1.4
“Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues.”
Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.
De Testimonio Animae (The Testimony of the Soul), 6.3
Context: 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.
Source: On Idolatry, Chapter 6
“He who flees will fight again.”
Qui fugiebat, rursus sibi proeliabitur.
De Fuga in Persecutione, 10
Tertullian Quotes about God
“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.”
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.
De Paenitentia (On Repentance), 1.2-3
Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 42
“When God's Spirit descends, then Patience accompanies Him indivisibly.”
Cum ergo spiritus Dei descendit, indiuidua patientia comitatur eum.
De Patientia, 15:7
Adv. Prax. 12 http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0788/_P1.HTM
Original: (la) 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.
“The Son of God was crucified: I am not ashamed--because it is shameful. The Son of God died: it is immediately credible--because it is silly. He was buried, and rose again: it is certain--because it is impossible. (Evans translation). z Tertullianus - De carne Christi”
Crucifixus est dei filius; non pudet, quia pudendum est. Et mortuus est dei filius; credibile prorsus est, quia ineptum est. Et sepultus resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile.
Adv. Prax. 18 http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0788/_P1.HTM
Against Praxeas https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm
Original: (la) 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 Quotes about nature
“All things will be in danger of being taken in a sense different from their own proper sense, and, whilst taken in that different sense, of losing their proper one, if they are called by a name which differs from their natural designation. Fidelity in names secures the safe appreciation of properties.”
Omnia periclitabuntur aliter accipi quam sunt, et amittere quod sunt dum aliter accipiuntur, si aliter quam sunt cognominantur. Fides nominum salus est proprietatum.
De Carne Christi, 13.2
“O witness of the soul naturally Christian.”
Original: O testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae
Source: The Apology https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0301.htm, Chapter 17
Variant translation: We conclude that God is known first through Nature, and then again, more particularly, by doctrine; by Nature in His works, and by doctrine in His revealed word.
Book I, Chapter XVIII.—Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the Vouchers Both of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation.
This was quoted by Galileo in his defense of natural sciences.
Galileo Galilei: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615 https://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN242/duchess.html
Against Marcion https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0312.htm
Original: (la) Digna enim deo probabunt deum. Nos definimus deum primo natura cognoscendum, deinde doctrina recognoscendum, natura ex operibus, doctrina ex praedicationibus.
Source: The Chaplet https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0304.htm, Chapter V
Source: The Chaplet https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0304.htm, Chapter V
“O witness of the soul naturally Christian.”
Original: (la) O testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae
Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 17
Tertullian Quotes
As quoted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 285
Context: We worship unity in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither confounding the person nor dividing the substance. There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.
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
Context: 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.
Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_III/Apologetic/On_Idolatry/Of_the_Observance_of_Days_Connected_with_Idolatry Chapter 13, On Idolatry
Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 38
Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_III/Apologetic/On_Idolatry/Wide_Scope_of_the_Word_Idolatry, Chapter 1
“It is certainly no part of religion to compel religion.”
Nec religionis est cogere religionem
Ad Scapulam, 2.2
“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.”
Esterni sumus, & vestra omnia implevimus, Vrbes, Insulas, Castella, Municipia, Conciliabula, Castra ipsa, Tribus, Decurias, palatium, Senatum, Forum, sola vobis relinquimus Templa.
Tertullian's Plea For Allegiance, A.2
De Resurrectione Carnis [Of the Resurrection of Flesh] Ch.1 as quoted in The Writings of Tertullian, Vol.2 http://books.google.com/books?id=nlcPAQAAMAAJ Tr. Peter Holmes, as contained in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to AD 325 Vol.15 (1870)
“We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.”
Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis christianorum.
Tertullian
book
Apologeticus
Apologeticus, 50, s. 13
Often quoted as ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’
Variant translation: As often as we are mown down by you, the more we grow in numbers; the blood of the Christians is the seed. Another common translation is "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians."
Apologeticus pro Christianis
“Christians are made, not born.”
Fiunt non nascuntur Christiani
A variant on “One is not born wise, but becomes wise” from Seneca the Younger On Anger 2.10.6; see: Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: the witness of Tertullian, by Tertullian, Robert Dick Sider, p. 38 http://books.google.com/books?id=-qezxQeuutYC&pg=PA38&dq=%22Christians+are+made,+not+born%22, footnote 79
Variant: Many variants on this exist, notably “Great lovers are made, not born.” and “(Great) leaders are made, not born.”
Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 18
“I shall dispel one empty story by another.”
Itaque et ego vanitatem vanitate depellam.
Variant translation: I must dispel vanity with vanity.
Adversus Marcionem, IV.30.3
“Of little worth is the recommendation which has for its prop the defamation of another.”
Infirma commendatio est quae de alterius destructione fulcitur.
Adversus Marcionem, IV.15.5
“One man's religion neither harms nor helps another man.”
Nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio.
Ad Scapulam, 2.2
“In pursuit of gain, men have begun to consider their violence an article to be bought and sold.”
Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 38
“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.”
Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant; ipsi enim invicem oderunt: et ut pro alterutro mori sint parati; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt.
Source: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 39, describing how Christianity is mocked by its enemies.
“Out of the frying pan into the fire.”
De calcaria in carbonarium.
De Carne Christi, 6; "The Roman version of the proverb is more literally translated "Out of the lime-kiln into the coal-furnace."
“The Jews formed the breeding ground of all anti-Christian actions.”
Source: See In His Name https://books.google.com.br/books?id=HCucAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA312 by E. Christopher Reyes, Volume IV, p. 312
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
The Prescription Against Heretics https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm
“It is certain because it is impossible.”
De Carne Christi 5.4
Often paraphrased or misquoted as "Credo quia absurdum."
Also paraphrased as "It is so extraordinary that it must be true."
The above two lines from De Carne Christi have often become conflated into the statement: "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible), which can be perceived as a distortion of the actual arguments that Tertullian was making.
On the Flesh of Christ https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0315.htm
Original: (la) Certum est, quia impossibile.
De Testimonio Animae (The Testimony of the Soul), 6.3
The Soul's Testimony https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0309.htm
Original: (la) Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.
