Verifying Quote by Saint Augustine

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Did Saint Augustine say, “Heretics take away from the Church truths that belong to her”? Seems like I heard Scott Hahn cite this, but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.

Anyway, I’d like to know if the quote is authentic, and if it is, which work I will find it in.

Thanks,
John Strong
 
How about something like—
St. Augustine expressly states that “whoever draws away anyone from the universal Church to any sect, is a murderer and a Child of Satan” - Ad Petilian, 2, 13.
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  1. Petilianus said: Over and over again He reproaches the false speakers and liars in such terms as these: ‘You are the children of the devil, for he also was a slanderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.’"
  2. Augustine answered: We are not wont to say, “He was a slanderer,” but “He was a murderer.” John 8:44 But we ask how it was that the devil was a murderer from the beginning; and we find that he slew the first man, not by drawing a sword, nor by applying to him any bodily violence, but by persuading him to sin, and thus driving him from the happiness of Paradise. What, then, was Paradise is now represented by the Church. Therefore those are the sons of the devil who slay men by withdrawing them from the Church. But as by the words of God we know what was the situation of Paradise, so now by the words of Christ we have learned where the Church is to be found: “Throughout all nations,” He says, “beginning at Jerusalem.” Whosoever, therefore, separates a man from that complete whole to place him in any single part, is proved to be a son of the devil and a murderer. But see, further, what is the application of the expression which you yourself employed in saying of the devil, “He was a slanderer, and abode not in the truth.” For you bring an accusation against the whole world on account of the sins of others, though even those others themselves you were more able to accuse than to convict; and you abode not in the truth of Christ. For He says that the Church is “throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;” but you say that it is in the party of Donatus.
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That quote was unknown to me until this moment. Somehow it doesn’t sound like Augustine’s voice. More like Chesterton’s, perhaps?
 
Bartholomew, that’s entirely possible. If so, my apologies for misleading everyone. In my old age, the authors of quotes sometimes blur in my mind. Obviously, it would carry more weight if it were Augustine, but Chesterton counts as an authority in my book.

The quote was not condeming heretics as sons of Satan. It was intended to reflect the idea that heresies are usually disordered expressions of something the Church needs, and their exit from communion will likely result in a kind of impoverishment.

Thanks!!
 
These aren’t exactly what I recall, but they come close. Chesterton said:
  • “Every heresy is a truth taught out of proportion.” (Daily News, June 26, 1909.)
  • “A heresy is always a half-truth turned into a whole falsehood” (America, November 9, 1935).
 
Another possibility might be Irinaeus (whom I haven’t read).
 
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