William Wilberforce Quotes in Amazing Grace (2006)

Pitt the Younger: Why is it you only feel the thorns in your feet when you stop running?

William Wilberforce: Is that some sort of heavy-handed metaphorical advice for me, Mr. Pitt?

William Wilberforce: I want you to remember that smell... remember the Madagascar... remember, God made men equal.

William Wilberforce: It's God. I have 10,000 engagements of state today but I would prefer to spend the day out here getting a wet arse, studying dandelions and marveling at... bloody spider's webs.

Richard the Butler: You found God, sir?

William Wilberforce: I think He found me. You have any idea how inconvenient that is? How idiotic it will sound? I have a political career glittering ahead of me, and in my heart I want spider's webs.

Richard the Butler: [sitting down next to WW] "It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else and still unknown to himself." Francis Bacon. I don't just dust your books, sir.

John Newton: [reciting his song] "I once was blind but now I see". Didn't I write that?

William Wilberforce: Yes, you did.

John Newton: Now at last it's true.

Pitt the Younger: As your Prime Minister, I urge you caution

William Wilberforce: And as my friend?

Pitt the Younger: To hell with caution.

William Wilberforce: No one of our age has ever taken power.

Pitt the Younger: Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. Which is why we will do them anyway.

Duke of Clarence: Revolution is like the pox. It spreads from person to person.

William Wilberforce: I bow to my honorable friend's superior knowledge and experience in all matters regarding the pox.

William Wilberforce: You wake me up to give me medicine to help me sleep?

William Wilberforce: No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!

Lord Tarleton: People?

Thomas Clarkson: [to the baby in his arms] "Strange treasures in this fair world appear, strange all, and new to me." That is a poem by Thomas Traherne and I have absolutely no idea what it's about. But, when I was small I was made to learn it by heart so I don't see why you shouldn't suffer too.

William Wilberforce: [calling] Clarkson! Clarkson!

Thomas Clarkson: Good God, he's got his voice back.

William Wilberforce: I thought time might have changed you.

John Newton: It has. I'm older.

Marianne Thornton: What time did Barbara leave?

William Wilberforce: Late. I mean early.

William Wilberforce: I had heard your sight was fading.

John Newton: Well, now it's faded altogether. I never do things by halves. God decided I'd seen enough.

Henry Thornton: Come, we're late.

William Wilberforce: The water has been here a million years, how can we be late?

William Wilberforce: [Fox walks in unexpectedly] Dear God.

Lord Charles Fox: Well, almost. I spent eighteen months being torn apart in the House by you Mr. Wilberforce. I thought I'd find out what it feels like on your side. Any of you saints drink?

Thomas Clarkson: Well, this one bloody does!

Thomas Clarkson: Beautiful house. Sweet, little... rabbit.

William Wilberforce: It's a hare actually.

William Wilberforce: I'm against flowers in church. What have you to say?

Barbara Wilberforce: I am *for* them.

William Wilberforce: [both pause]

William Wilberforce: [resignedly] As am I.

William Wilberforce: Oh, if the House of Lords could hear the idiotic way we carry on, they'd ban anyone under the age of 30 from holding high office again.

William Wilberforce: Also, Barbara and I have discovered that we're both impatient and prone to rash decisions. But she wants to tell you about it herself.

Thomas Clarkson: Why did you wait until your butler had left before you got out of the box?

William Wilberforce: They already think I'm mad.

William Wilberforce: [after Pitt beats him running] It's my ministerial duty to let you win.

William Wilberforce: Where are you going?

Lord Charles Fox: To look up the word integrity.

Barbara Wilberforce: Mr. Wilberforce, I understand that you have an interest in botany.

William Wilberforce: Botany, Miss Spooner? What makes you think I would have interest in something as tedious as botany?

[pause, then snorts. Both Barbara and Wilberforce choke with laughter]

William Wilberforce: [to the concerned people at the table] Sorry, it's a private joke.

John Newton: Besides, people like you too much to let you live a life of solitude.

William Wilberforce: Haven't you chosen solitude?

John Newton: You of all people should know I can never be alone.

William Wilberforce: An imperfect order is better than no order at all.

Thomas Clarkson: No! We must fight for a perfect order!

Pitt the Younger: We cracked crowns, didn't we?

William Wilberforce: We left the heads intact.

Pitt the Younger: Because we're so pathetically English.

Pitt the Younger: You act like you've never seen slavery before.

William Wilberforce: For me, it's like arsenic. Each new tiny dose doubles the effect.

William Wilberforce: Remember that God made men equal.

Pitt the Younger: Is that the main course?

William Wilberforce: No. It's the Duke of Clarence.

William Wilberforce: You're dressing very simply these days.

John Newton: I'm a simple man.

William Wilberforce: This is why I really shouldn't talk about it.

Barbara Wilberforce: I think you should.

[pause]

Barbara Wilberforce: There, we found something we don't agree on.

William Wilberforce: Perhaps we should begin this journey with a first step.

William Wilberforce: God has set before me two great objects.

William Wilberforce: I never change.

Pitt the Younger: Well, hurrah for you.

James Stephen: Don't I get to wash or sleep?

William Wilberforce: Sleep?

James Stephen: You haven't changed at all, William!

William Wilberforce: It's only painful to talk about because we haven't changed anything.