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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?

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
Life
Remain
Account
Stewardship
Knowing
Length
Transcendent
Means
Bars
Motives
Give
Leads
Urgent
Obstinately
Giving
Ignorant
Urge
Summoned
Mean
Pursuit
Arrive
Plea
Way
Accounts
Urges
Reckoning
Time
Defense
Motive
Willingly

More quotes by 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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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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The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint
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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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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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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No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!
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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true Christians consider themselves not as satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude
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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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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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
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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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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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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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Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.
William Wilberforce
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Measure your progress by your experience of the love of God and its exercise before men.
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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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