Saint Augustine — "Having children is the only worthy fruit of sexual intercourse."
Having children is the only worthy fruit of sexual intercourse.
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More from Saint Augustine
"It is natural for men to rule over women."
"It is according to the natural order that women serve their husbands."
"To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation."
"He who is not jealous is not in love."
"The will is truly free, when it is not the slave of vices and sins."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
This quote argues that sex is only morally legitimate when oriented toward procreation. Pleasure, desire, or emotional intimacy alone cannot justify the act — only producing children gives sexual intercourse moral purpose. It presents a strictly utilitarian view of sexuality: the body's drives are dangerous and fallen, and only reproduction redeems them. Any sex outside that reproductive purpose is, by implication, morally suspect or sinful.
Relevance to Saint Augustine
Augustine lived openly with a concubine for 13 years and fathered a son before his Christian conversion. His famous prayer — 'Give me chastity, but not yet' — reveals his sexual struggle. After converting, he developed an influential theology connecting sex to original sin. This quote reflects that personal transformation: the man who once indulged desire now declared procreation the only valid justification for it.
The era
Augustine wrote in the late 4th–early 5th century CE, when Christianity had recently become Rome's official religion and was defining its sexual ethics against Roman permissiveness, Manichaean asceticism, and Stoic philosophy. His Confessions and City of God helped cement the Church's doctrine that sex without procreative intent was spiritually corrupting. This shaped Catholic teaching for over a millennium, making Augustine's view foundational to Western Christian sexual ethics.
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