Person

William Wilberforce

(1721-1777)

(1721-1777)

Notable quotes

“Having heard all of this you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.”
— Close of a speech in House of Commons (1791), as quoted in Once Blind : The Life of John Newton (2008) by Kay Marshall Strom, p. 225.
“God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners...”
— C. MacFarlane & T. Thomson. (1792), The comprehensive history of England, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt, page 752.
“Thank God that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the abolition of slavery.”
— Friday 26 July 1833, House of Commons, second reading of Abolition of Slavery Bill. Wilberforce died the following Monday. The English Cyclopaedia, page 693.
“All men of enlightened understandings, who acknowledge the moral government of God, must also acknowledge, that vice must offend and virtue delight him. In short they must, more or less, assent to the Scripture declaration, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.””
— p. 237
“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.”
— Accepting the position of leader of the anti-slavery campaign.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.