Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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

More quotes by William Wilberforce

Image
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
Image
As much pains were taken to make me idle as were ever taken to make me studious.
William Wilberforce
Image
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
Image
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.
William Wilberforce
Image
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
Image
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.
William Wilberforce
Image
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
Image
No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!
William Wilberforce
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.
William Wilberforce
Image
To the one, a little natural moderation and quietness of temper may be sufficient to conduct us: but to the other, we can only attain by much discipline and slow advances and when we think we have made great way, we shall often find reason to confess in the hour of trial, that we had greatly, far too greatly, over-rated our progress.
William Wilberforce
Image
Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.
William Wilberforce
Image
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
Image
We are too young to realize that certain things are impossible... So we will do them anyway.
William Wilberforce
Image
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
Image
The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.
William Wilberforce
Image
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.
William Wilberforce
Image
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.
William Wilberforce
Image
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