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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

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William Wilberforce
Age: 73 †
Born: 1759
Born: August 24
Died: 1833
Died: July 29
Abolitionist
British Politician
Philanthropist
Politician
Slaves
Modest
Vanity
Slave
Competition
Blessed
Ostentation
Wealth
Withdraw
Fashion
Retiring

More quotes by William Wilberforce

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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.
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The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.
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Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.
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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.
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Africa, your sufferings have been the theme that has arrested & engaged my heart.
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You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.
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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.
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Servile, and base, and mercenary, is the notion of Christian practice among the bulk of nominal Christians. They give no more than they dare not with-hold they abstain from nothing but what they must not practise.
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This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours!
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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.
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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.
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The time of reckoning will at length arrive. And when finallly summoned to the bar of God, to give an account of our stewardship, what plea can we have to urge in our defense, if we remain willingly, and obstinately ignorant of the way which leads to life, with such transcendent means of knowing it, and such urgent motives to its pursuit?
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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?
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Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.
William Wilberforce
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true Christians consider themselves not as satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude
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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.
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Can you tell a plain man the road to heaven? Certainly, turn at once to the right, and then go straight forward.
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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.
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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
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Men of authority and influence may promote good morals. Let them in their several stations encourage virtue. Let them favor and take part in any plans which may be formed for the advancement of morality.
William Wilberforce