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Julian Quotes
331–363
Flavius Claudius Julianus (c. 331 – 26 June 363) was a Hellenistic philosopher, military leader, Roman emperor, and satirist, often referred to as Julian the Apostate because of his rejection of formal Christian doctrines, and opposition to their spread, and sometimes as Julian II, to distinguish him from Didius Julianus. Sometimes now referred to as Julian the Philosopher, he was the last pagan Augustus of the Roman Empire.
Military leaders Philosophers Satirists Also known as: Julian, Julian II, Julian the Apostate, Flavius Claudius Julianus
Random Julian quote
53 quotes
How keen in war your swords!
The Caesars (361)
I think he who knows himself will know accurately, not the opinion of others about him, but what he is in reality… he ought to discover within himself what is right for him to do and not learn it from without…
But were one to discuss the numerous other qualities belonging to this god, he would never arrive to the end of them.
Men's works also are naturally perishable and mutable and subject to every kind of alteration. But since God is eternal, it follows that of such sort are his ordinances also.
Against the Galilaeans (362)
Choose your friends, then treat them as friends; do not regard them like slaves or servants, but associate with them frankly and simply and generously; not saying one thing of them and thinking something else.
To what purpose, pray, exist all these things that be born? Whence come male and female?
Upon the Mother of the Gods (362)
But why do you not cease to call Mary the mother of God, if Isaiah nowhere says that he that is born of the virgin is the "only begotten Son of God" and "the firstborn of all creation"?
Against the Galilaeans (362)
My own belief is, if philosophers be entitled to any credit, that the Sun is the common parent of all men, to use a comprehensive term.
It is not sufficient to say, "God spake and it was so." For the natures of things that are created ought to harmonise with the commands of God.
Against the Galilaeans (362)
All, therefore, that was fitting to be said touching the nature of this deity (although very much has been passed over in silence) has now been stated at some length.
This Attis, therefore, the intelligible Power, the holder together of things material below the Moon, having intercourse with the pre-ordained Cause of Matter, holds intercourse therewith, not as a male with a female, but as though flowing into it, since he is the same with it.
Upon the Mother of the Gods (362)
O Mother of gods and men, assister and colleague of mighty Jove! O source of the Intelligible Powers!
Upon the Mother of the Gods (362)
I die without remorse, as I have lived without guilt.
All of us, without being taught, have attained to a belief in some sort of divinity, though it is not easy for all men to know the precise truth about it, nor is it possible for those who do know it to tell it to all men.
Against the Galilaeans (362)
Now for a few words about Aphrodite, whom the Phoenician theologians agree in making co-operate in the work of creation with the last-mentioned goddess — and I believe they are right.
Are you not aware that all offerings whether great or small that are brought to the gods with piety have equal value, whereas without piety, I will not say hecatombs, but, by the gods, even the Olympian sacrifice of a thousand oxen is merely empty expenditure and nothing else?
The one absolutely, the Intelligible, the ever Preexisting, comprehending all the universe together within the One — nay, more, is not the whole world One living thing — all and everywhere full of life and soul, perfect and made up out of parts likewise perfect?
On the same subject you will obtain more complete and more abstruse information by consulting the works upon it composed by the divine Iamblichus: you will find there the extreme limit of human wisdom attained.
Set a strong watch upon yourself: reverence us and us alone, and of men him that is like us and none other. You see what tricks self-consciousness and dumb foundering, faint-heartedness have played with yonder idiot.
I feel awe of the gods, I love, I revere, I venerate them, and in short have precisely the same feelings towards them as one would have towards kind masters or teachers or fathers or guardians or any beings of that sort.
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