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.
Interpretation
True knowledge comes from divine revelation rather than human reasoning.
Tertullian emphasizes the importance of divine wisdom over human understanding. He suggests that there are truths beyond our grasp, and that seeking knowledge outside of what God has revealed can lead us astray, as it relies on the fallible nature of human reasoning.
In practice
In a discussion about faith, one could use this quote to highlight the limitations of human understanding.
Whatever is born is the work of God. So whatever is plastered on, is the devil's work.... How unworthy of the Christian name it is to wear a fictitious face - you on whom simplicity in every form is enjoined! You, to whom lying with the tongue is not lawful, are lying in appearance.
Nature soaks every evil with either fear or shame.
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.
The first reaction to truth is hatred.
We say, and we say openly, and while ye torture us, mangled and gory we cry out, "We worship God through Christ!" Believe Him a man: it is through Him and in Him that God willeth Himself to be known and worshipped.
Against Him those women sin who torment their skin with potions, stain their cheeks with rouge and extend the line of their eyes with black coloring. Doubtless they are dissatisfied with God's plastic skill. In their own persons they convict and censure the Artificer of all things.
Childhood lasts all through life. It returns to animate broad sections of adult life... Poets will help us to find this living childhood within us, this permanent, durable immobile world.
Labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it without becoming proportionately brutalized.
The heart of a Christian, like the moon, commonly suffers an eclipse when it is at the full, and that by the interposition of the earth.
He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.
We ourselves cannot put any magic spells on this world. The world is its own magic.
You see in Islam, you see in Christianity, you see in Africa, in different religions, in Buddhism and Hinduism, there is a strong commitment to refugee protection.
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