Quote

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

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William Wilberforce
Age: 73 †
Born: 1759
Born: August 24
Died: 1833
Died: July 29
Abolitionist
British Politician
Philanthropist
Politician
Think
Upon
Direct
Civilized
Monitor
Thinking
Read
View
Lesson
Proofs
World
Times
Views
Forced
Depravity
Around
Hear
Wherever
Humiliating
Look
Modern
Proof
Breast
Looks
Within
Discover
Melancholy
Feel
Nations
Ancient
Conduct
Feels
Whether
Lessons
Breasts
Barbarous

More quotes by William Wilberforce

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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.
William Wilberforce
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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
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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.
William Wilberforce
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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.
William Wilberforce
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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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In short, Christians in general are everywhere denominated the servants and the children of God, and are required to serve him with that submissive obedience, and that affectionate promptitude of duty, which belong to those endearing relations.
William Wilberforce
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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
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God has so made the mind of man that a peculiar deliciousness resides in the fruits of personal industry.
William Wilberforce
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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
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God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners (morality).
William Wilberforce
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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
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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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You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.
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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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.
William Wilberforce
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As much pains were taken to make me idle as were ever taken to make me studious.
William Wilberforce
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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
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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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Africa, your sufferings have been the theme that has arrested & engaged my heart.
William Wilberforce
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Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.
William Wilberforce