William Wilberforce Quotes
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, 1759-1833, English Member of Parliament, Quoted in John Piper, Reflections on the Life and Labor of William Wilberforce
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Mohamed Anwar El-Sedat. This was the famous speech that started the peace process in motion. He was referring to the misery of the Palestinians whose poor past decisions had left them without an independent state.
This was a swipe at the Conservatives at the time who were opposed to a Federal Government that would actively provide assistance directly to individuals. There was a belief amongst some politicians that by assisting people in need, their character would be weakened and the people and the society would be hurt in the long run.
William Wilberforce was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he became an evangelical Christian, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform.
