Quote

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

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William Wilberforce
Age: 73 †
Born: 1759
Born: August 24
Died: 1833
Died: July 29
Abolitionist
British Politician
Philanthropist
Politician
Wealth
Exception
Natural
Claim
Find
Doctrine
Come
Claims
Prompts
Always
Case
Grandeur
Love
General
Continually
Necessary
Guard
Cases
Apply

More quotes by William Wilberforce

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It is the true duty of every man to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures to the utmost of his power.
William Wilberforce
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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
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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?
William Wilberforce
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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
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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.
William Wilberforce
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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
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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
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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
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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.
William Wilberforce
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O what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business like the divine path of the Israelites through the sea! There is nothing in which I would advise you to be more strictly conscientious than in keeping the Sabbath day holy. I can truly declare that to me the Sabbath has been invaluable.
William Wilberforce
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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.
William Wilberforce
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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.
William Wilberforce
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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.
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.
William Wilberforce
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There is no shortcut to holiness it must be the business of our whole lives.
William Wilberforce
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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
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The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.
William Wilberforce
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Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.
William Wilberforce
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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
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The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint
William Wilberforce