William Wilberforce Quotes

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

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.

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

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

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.

We are too young to realize that certain things are impossible... So we will do them anyway.

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.

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

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

The objects of the present life fill the human eye with a false magnification because of their immediacy.

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

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.

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

My walk is a public one. My business is in the world, and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me.

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

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.

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

Our motto must continue to be perseverance. And ultimately I trust the Almighty will crown our efforts with success.

Lovely flowers are the smiles of god's goodness.

true Christians consider themselves not as satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude

God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners (morality).

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.

The observance of one commandment, however clearly and forcibly enjoined, cannot make up for the neglect of another which is enjoined with equal clearness and equal force.

Let everyone regulate his conduct... by the golden rule of doing to others as in similar circumstances we would have them do to us, and the path of duty will be clear before him.

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

The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.

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.

Let true Christians then, with becoming earnestness, strive in all things to recommend their profession, and to put to silence the vain scoffs of ignorant objectors.

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

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.

Can one serve God and one's nation in parliament?

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

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

I continually find it necessary to guard against that natural love of wealth and grandeur which prompts us always, when we come to apply our general doctrine to our own case, to claim an exception.

If . . . a principle of true Religion [i.e., true Christianity] should . . . gain ground, there is no estimating the effects on public morals, and the consequent influence on our political welfare.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence, but to rouse us to exertion.

Of all things guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.

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