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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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William Wilberforce
Age: 73 †
Born: 1759
Born: August 24
Died: 1833
Died: July 29
Abolitionist
British Politician
Philanthropist
Politician
World
Misery
Ignorance
Redress
Health
Instruct
Wrong
Affluence
May
Alleviate
Find
Supply
Right
Idle
Men
Leisure

More quotes by 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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To live our lives and miss that great purpose we were designed to accomplish is truly a sin. It is inconceivable that we could be bored in a world with so much wrong to tackle, so much ignorance to reach and so much misery we could alleviate
William Wilberforce
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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.
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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There is no shortcut to holiness it must be the business of our whole lives.
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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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.
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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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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No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!
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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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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Can one serve God and one's nation in parliament?
William Wilberforce
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We have different forms assigned to us in the school of life, different gifts imparted. All is not attractive that is good. Iron is useful, though it does not sparkle like the diamond. Gold has not the fragrance of a flower. So different persons have various modes of excellence, and we must have an eye to all.
William Wilberforce
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This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours!
William Wilberforce
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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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The distemper of which, as a community, we are sick, should be considered rather as a moral than a political malady.
William Wilberforce
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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.
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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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