William Wilberforce Quotes

Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul. ~ William Wilberforce

I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours. ~ William Wilberforce

And, sir, when we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God?. ~ William Wilberforce

Both man and woman have their own parts to play in bringing faith to the next generation, and the woman's role is particularly important. How can we ever think that the female sex is inferior when we see the essential responsibility God has given women in this world? Their sensitivity to spiritual concerns seems to be farm more innate and natural than a man's. Mothers and wives often are the medium for our intercourse with the heavenly world, the faithful repositories of spiritual knowledge and wisdom. We should all be careful to avail ourselves of the benefits they have to offer both the present generation and the one that will follow us. ~ William Wilberforce

Surely the principles of Christianity lead to action as well as meditation. ~ William Wilberforce

The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint ~ William Wilberforce

Ow interest can draw a film across the eyes, so think, that total blindness could do no more; and how it is our duty therefore to trust not to the reasonings of interested men, or to their way of colouring a transaction.
William Wilberforce, 12th May 1789, Against the slave trade ~ William Wilberforce

Some might say that one's faith is a private matter and should not be spoken of so publicly. They might assert this in public, but what do they really think in their hearts? The fact is, those who say such things usually don't even have a concern for faith in the privacy of their interior lives. ~ William Wilberforce

True Christians consider themselves not as satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude ~ William Wilberforce

May God enable me to have a single eye and a simple heart, desiring to please God, to do good to my fellow creatures, and testify my gratitude to my adorable Redeemer. ~ William Wilberforce

It must be conceded by those who admit the authority of Scripture (such only he is addressing) that from the decision of the word of God there can be no appeal. ~ William Wilberforce

If any country were indeed filled with men, each thus diligently discharging the duties of his own station without breaking in upon the rights of others, but on the contrary endeavoring, so far as he might be able, to forward their views and promote their happiness, all would be active and harmonious in the goodly frame of human society. ~ William Wilberforce

When blessed with wealth, let them withdraw from the competition of vanity and be modest, retiring from ostentation, and not be the slaves of fashion. ~ William Wilberforce

The distemper of which, as a community, we are sick, should be considered rather as a moral than a political malady. ~ William Wilberforce

Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. ~ William Wilberforce

What a difference it would be if our system of morality were based on the Bible instead of the standards devised by cultural Christians. ~ William Wilberforce

A private faith that does not act in the face of oppression is no faith at all. ~ William Wilberforce

It is the distinguishing glory of Christianity not to rest satisfied with superficial appearances, but to rectify the motives, and purify the heart. ~ William Wilberforce

God has so made the mind of man that a peculiar deliciousness resides in the fruits of personal industry. ~ William Wilberforce

Holy anger has its roots in genuine love. Both are part of the nature of God. Jesus' love for the man with the withered hand aroused His anger against those who would deny him healing. Jesus' love for God's house made Him angry at the sellers and buyers who had turned the temple into a "den of robbers" (Matthew 21:13). Yet in both these cases and others, it was ultimately Jesus' love for those doing wrong that caused Him to be angry with them. His anger got their attention!
Great leaders -- people who turn the tide and change the direction of events -- have been angry at injustice and abuse that dishonors God and enslaves the weak. William Wilberforce moved heaven and earth to emancipate slaves in England and eliminate the slave trade -- and he was angry! ~ J. Oswald Sanders

What should we suppose must naturally be the consequence of our carrying on a slave trade with Africa? With a country, vast in its extent, not utterly barbarous, but civilized in a very small degree? Does any one suppose a slave trade would help their civilization? ~ William Wilberforce

Lovely flowers are the smiles of god's goodness. ~ William Wilberforce

Taken all together, it's difficult to escape the verdict that William Wilberforce was simply the greatest social reformer in the history of the world. ~ Eric Metaxas

If there is no passionate love for Christ at the center of everything, we will only jingle and jangle our way across the world, merely making a noise as we go ~ William Wilberforce

We are all guilty... [But the opportunity to make money] can draw a film across the eyes, so thick, that total blindness could do no more... A trade founded in iniquity must be abolished... let the consequences be what they will. ~ William Wilberforce

Can you tell a plain man the road to heaven? Certainly, turn at once to the right, then go straight forward. ~ William Wilberforce

No man has a right to be idle. Where is it that in such a world as this, that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate? ~ William Wilberforce

Measure your progress by your experience of the love of God and its exercise before men. ~ William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce ... w as a great man who impacted the Western world as few others have done. Blessed with brains, charm, influence and initiative, much wealth ... he put evangelism on Britain's map as a power for social change, first by overthrowing the slave trade almost single-handed and then by generating a stream of societies for doing good and reducing evil in public life ... To forget such men is foolish. ~ J.I. Packer

Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer. ~ William Wilberforce

Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me. ~ William Wilberforce

Africa, your sufferings have been the theme that has arrested & engaged my heart. ~ William Wilberforce

We can scarcely indeed look into any part of the sacred volume without meeting abundant proofs, that it is the religion of the Affections which God particularly requires. Love, Zeal, Gratitude, Joy, Hope, Trust, are each of them specified; and are not allowed to us as weaknesses, but enjoined on us as our bounden duty, and commended to us as our acceptable worship. ~ William Wilberforce

How can we judge fairly of the characters and merits of men, of the wisdom or folly of actions, unless we have ... an accurate knowledge of all particulars, so that we may live as it were in the times, and among the persons, of whom we read, see with their eyes, and reason and decide on their premises? ~ William Wilberforce

As much pains were taken to make me idle as were ever taken to make me studious. ~ William Wilberforce

Wherever we direct our view, we discover the melancholy proofs of our depravity; whether we look to ancient or modern times, to barbarous or civilized nations, to the conduct of the world around us, or to the monitor within the breast; whether we read, or hear, or act, or think, or feel, the same humiliating lesson is forced upon us. ~ William Wilberforce

In an age in which infidelity abounds, do we observe parents carefully instructing their children in the principles of faith which they profess? Or do they furnish their children with arguments for the defense of that faith? ... it is not surprising to see them abandon a position which they are unable to defend. ~ William Wilberforce

On August 26 the Assembly responded by conferring French citizenship upon Joseph Priestley, Jeremy Bentham, William Wilberforce, Anacharsis Cloots, Johann Pestalozzi, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Friedrich Schiller, George Washington, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. ~ Will Durant

Life as we know it, with all its ups and downs, will soon be over. We all will give an accounting to God of how we have lived. ~ William Wilberforce

No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people! ~ William Wilberforce

If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large. ~ William Wilberforce

I am disturbed when I see the majority of so-called Christians having such little understanding of the real nature of the faith they profess. Faith is a subject of such importance that we should not ignore it because of the distractions or the hectic pace of our lives. ~ William Wilberforce

Every time I get a bit worried about having made some second rate choices in life I go back and read about the Suffragettes or William Wilberforce, people who were 'wrong' in their own time, and think, 'Ah well.' ~ Bob Brown

This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! ~ William Wilberforce

Read the Bible, read the Bible! Let no religious book take its place. Through all my perplexities and distresses, I seldom read any other book, and I as rarely felt the want of any other. ~ William Wilberforce

Why is it so hard to get people to study the Scriptures? Common sense tells us what revelation commands: 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God'
'Search the Scriptures'
'Be ready to give to every one a reason of the hope that is in you.' These are the words of the inspired writers, and these injunctions are confirmed by praising those who obey the admonition. And yet, for all that we have the Bible in our houses, we are ignorant of its contents. No wonder that so many Christians know so little about what Christ actually taught; no wonder that they are so mistaken about the faith that they profess. ~ William Wilberforce

Is it not the great end of religion, and, in particular, the glory of Christianity, to extinguish the malignant passions; to curb the violence, to control the appetites, and to smooth the asperities of man; to make us compassionate and kind, and forgiving one to another; to make us good husbands, good fathers, good friends; and to render us active and useful in the discharge of the relative social and civil duties? ~ William Wilberforce

Christianity has been successfully attacked and marginalized ... because those who professed belief were unable to defend the faith from attack, even though its attackers' arguments were deeply flawed. ~ William Wilberforce

The instructive admonitions, "give an account of thy stewardship," - "occupy till I come;" are forgotten. Thus the generous and wakeful spirit of Christian Benevolence, seeking and finding every where occasions for its exercise, is exploded, and a system of decent selfishness is avowedly established in its stead; a system scarcely more to be abjured for its impiety, than to be abhorred for its cold insensibility to the opportunities of diffusing happiness. ~ William Wilberforce

To live our lives and miss that great purpose we were designed to accomplish is truly a sin. It is inconceivable that we could be bored in a world with so much wrong to tackle, so much ignorance to reach and so much misery we could alleviate ~ William Wilberforce

There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God - admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world. ~ William Wilberforce

There is no shortcut to holiness; it must be the business of our whole lives. ~ William Wilberforce

Selfishness is one of the principal fruits of the corruption of human nature; and it is obvious that selfishness disposes us to over-rate our good qualities, and to overlook or extenuate our defects. ~ William Wilberforce

So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition. ~ William Wilberforce

Sulky labor, and the labor of sorrow are little worth: if you could only shed tranquility over the conscience and infuse joy into the soul, you would do more to make the man a thorough worker than if you could lend him the force of Hercules, or the hundred arms of Briareus. ~ William Wilberforce

Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he gave them over to a reprobate mind ~ William Wilberforce

You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know. ~ William Wilberforce

No one expects to attain to the height of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without vigorous resolution, strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance. Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study, or inquiry. ~ William Wilberforce

It is the true duty of every man to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures to the utmost of his power. ~ William Wilberforce

When people speak of great men, they think of men like Napoleon - men of violence. Rarely do they think of peaceful men. But contrast the reception they will receive when they return home from their battles. Napoleon will arrive in pomp and in power, a man who's achieved the very summit of earthly ambition. And yet his dreams will be haunted by the oppressions of war. William Wilberforce, however, will return to his family, lay his head on his pillow and remember: the slave trade is no more. ~ Charles Fox

No man, ever indulged more freely or happily in that playful facetiousness which gratifies all without wounding any. ~ William Wilberforce

If you love someone who is ruining his or her life because of faulty thinking, and you don't do anything about it because you are afraid of what others might think, it would seem that rather than being loving, you are in fact being heartless. ~ William Wilberforce

I mean not to accuse any one, but to take the shame upon myself, in common, indeed, with the whole parliament of Great Britain, for having suffered this horrid trade to be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty - we ought all to plead guilty, and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others; and I therefore deprecate every kind of reflection against the various descriptions of people who are more immediately involved in this wretched business. ~ William Wilberforce

Oh Lord, purify my soul from all its stains. Warm my heart with the love of thee, animate my sluggish nature and fix my inconstancy, and volatility, that I may not be weary in well doing, ~ William Wilberforce

With battlements that on their restless fronts Bore stars. ~ William Wordsworth

When a liquid boils, the temperature has been raised to such a pitch that the evaporating molecules are sufficient in number and speed to lift off the air from the surface of the liquid and push it back en masse. ~ William Henry Bragg

A handful of pine-seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of forests. I too will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high. ~ William Sharp

An estimated value is a precarious measure of justice, compared with the specific thing. ~ William Murray, 1st Earl Of Mansfield

The sea hath fish for every man. ~ William Camden

Flailing and thrashing, Buttercup wept and tossed and paced and wept some more, and there have been three great cases of jealousy since David of Galilee was first afflicted with the emotion when he could no longer stand the fact that his neighbor Saul's cactus outshone his own. (Originally, jealousy pertained solely to plants, other people's cactus or ginkgoes, or, later, when there was grass, grass, which is why, even to this day, we say that someone is green with jealousy.) Buttercup's case rated a close fourth on the all-time list.
It was a very long and very green night. ~ William Goldman

It's just a moment, we die every night. ~ William Carlos Williams

Good humor may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society. ~ William Makepeace Thackeray

Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all, all shall
die. ~ William Shakespeare

To talk of diseases is a sort of Arabian Nights entertainment. ~ William Osler

Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head ~ William Shakespeare

Maybe half a dozen think they are a community, but, in general terms, I think English writers tend to face outwards, away from each other, and write in their own patch, as it were. ~ William Golding

You know, you have Scorsese who worked with De Niro and - or DiCaprio. You have William Wyler who worked with Bette Davis. You have George Cukor who worked with Katharine Hepburn. I just - people get to be friends and then there's a - that's a - you can take risks together and each time out you take a different risk. ~ David O. Russell

Home is where your ass is and if you want to move you move your ass the first step is learning to change homes with someone else and have someone else's ass. ~ William S. Burroughs

Over fertilized plants may be beautiful but are otherwise useless, like people whose energies are devoted so completely to their appearance that there is no other development. ~ William F. Longgood

Back of ninety-nine out of one-hundred assertions that a thing cannot be done is nothing, but the unwillingness to do it. ~ William Feather

The steam engine has done much more for science than science has done for the steam engine. ~ William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

If it be honor in your wars to seem The same you are not,
which, for your best ends, You adopt your policy
how is it less or worse, That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war: since that to both It stands in like request? ~ William Shakespeare

Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. ~ William Shakespeare

I love my State, because her people have been good and kind to me, and because her sky is above my home, as it will be above my grave. ~ William Woods Holden

My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy. ~ William Shakespeare

One right and honest definition of business is mutual helpfulness. ~ William Feather

Any departure from fact is the first step on a slippery slope toward unbelievability. ~ William A. Henry III

Skepticism is not a denial of belief, but rather a denial of rational grounds for belief. ~ William Pepperell Montague

3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, and 7 is a prime. Why bother with non-prime numbers when the primes can do everything? ~ William Of Ockham

I hate it when people blame someone else and don't take responsibility. ~ William J. Clinton

I have an idea that is is what enduring love really means, Your memories of a girl at seventeen become as real and vivid as the middle-aged woman sitting in front of you. It is a happy sort of double vision, this seeing and remembering. To be seen this way is to be known. ~ William Landay

An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told. ~ William Shakespeare

I've been campaigning like anything for restoring these changes. For 27 years. I wrote a book about it, well, a portion of the book was devoted to these scenes and why they should have been in the movie. ~ William Peter Blatty

I know that I can save this country and that no one else can. ~ William Pitt, 1st Earl Of Chatham

William Stegner ... coined the term 'the geography of hope,' countering the argument that wilderness preservation served elites with the assertion that wilderness could be a place in which everyone could locate their hopefulness even if few actually entered it. ~ Rebecca Solnit

The river route is certainly preferable, as it affords good grazing and an abundance of water. ~ William Whipple

What is a roofless cathedral
to a well-built pie? ~ William Maginn

For the general practitioner a well-used library is one of the few correctives of the premature senility which is so apt to take him. ~ William Osler

Why, this is the world's soul; and just of the
same piece
Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him
His friend that dips in the same dish? for, in
My knowing, Timon has been this lord's father,
And kept his credit with his purse,
Supported his estate; nay, Timon's money
Has paid his men their wages: he ne'er drinks,
But Timon's silver treads upon his lip;
And yet - O, see the monstrousness of man
When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!
He does deny him, in respect of his,
What charitable men afford to beggars. ~ William Shakespeare

Pray, do not mock me.
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind. ~ William Shakespeare