Inspirational Quotes by William Wilberforce

“In the calmness of the morning before the mind is heated and weary by the turmoil of the day, you have a season of unusual importance for communing with God and with yourself.”

“I would suggest that faith is everyone’s business. The advance or decline of faith is so intimately connected to the welfare of a society that it should be of particular interest to a politician.”

“You can choose to look the other way but never again can you say that you never knew.”

“...we've gone all the way from foolishly accepting authority to foolishly rejecting all authority.”

“Blessed be to God for the day of rest and religious occupation wherein earthly things assume their true size.”

“A soft luxurious course of habitual indulgence, is the practice of the bulk of modern Christians: and that constant moderation, that wholesome discipline of restraint and self-denial, which are requisite to prevent the unperceived encroachments of the inferior appetites, seem altogether disused, as the exploded austerities of monkish superstition... But the persons of whom we are now speaking, forgetting alike the duties they owe to themselves and to their fellow-creatures, often act as though their condition were meant to be a state of uniform indulgence, and vacant, unprofitable sloth... To multiply the comforts of affluence, to provide for the gratification of appetite, to be luxurious without diseases, and indolent without lassitude, seems the chief study of their lives. Others again seem more to attach themselves to what have been well termed the ‘pomps and vanities of this world.’ Magnificent houses, grand equipages, numerous retinues, splendid entertainments, high and fashionable connections, appear to constitute, in their estimation, the supreme happiness of life.”

“No man, ever indulged more freely or happily in that playful facetiousness which gratifies all without wounding any.”

“because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he gave them over to a reprobate mind”

“We are all guilty... [But the opportunity to make money] can draw a film across the eyes, so thick, that total blindness could do no more... A trade founded in iniquity must be abolished... let the consequences be what they will.”

“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”

“..how interest can draw a film across the eyes, so think, that total blindness could do no more; and how it is our duty therefore to trust not to the reasonings of interested men, or to their way of colouring a transaction. William Wilberforce, 12th May 1789, Against the slave trade”

“How can you measure the value of the good news of Christ? It is spoken of in the Bible as light in the darkness, freedom from slavery and life from death. Look at how much the Early Church valued the message. They received it with great joy and overflowing gratitude.”

“But how can we tally what an achievement it was to endure what Jackie Robinson endured those first few years? It was an incalculable and heroic sacrifice that can never be reckoned or understood by any conventional standards. Robinson did what he agreed to do when he met that day with Branch Rickey, and he changed the game forever. It was a singular feat of such great moral strength that all athletic strength must pale in comparison. With God’s help, one man lifted up a whole people and pulled a whole nation into the future.”

“Having seen all this you can choose to look the other way, but you can never say again, 'I did not know.”

“The instructive admonitions, “give an account of thy stewardship,“—“occupy till I come;” are forgotten. Thus the generous and wakeful spirit of Christian Benevolence, seeking and finding every where occasions for its exercise, is exploded, and a system of decent selfishness is avowedly established in its stead; a system scarcely more to be abjured for its impiety, than to be abhorred for its cold insensibility to the opportunities of diffusing happiness.”

“God tells us our first duty is to love Him with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. This one emotion acts like a master spring that sets all the other components of the human heart into action. When it is present, many of the questions asked about what is appropriate and not appropriate for a Christian would not even need to be asked. Rather than trying to figure out what they can get away with and how close to the line they can get, men and women would be attempting to discern what they could do to express their love for God. The motivation would be totally different and we can only assume that the product would be also .”

“A good orator can whip a crowd, even a Christian crowd, into a frenzy. This is not the kind of emotion that God desires. When emotion is a response to truth or to a clear comprehension of the nature of God and His goodness to us, then emotion is valuable and appropriate.”

“What we believe determines how we live. Men who sincerely believed that what they were doing was right have perpetrated many of the most hideous crimes against humanity.”

“If I know something to be true, am I prepared to follow it even though it is contrary to what I want[?]”

“Carefully studying the Bible will reveal to us our own ignorance of these things. It will challenge us to reject a superficial understanding of Christianity and impress on us that it is imperative not to simply be religious or moral, but also to master the Bible intellectually, integrate its principles into our lives morally, and put into action what we have learned practically.”