- John Newton: Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly. I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.
- 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: I wish I could remember all their names. My 20,000 ghosts, they all had names, beautiful African names. We'd call them with just grunts, noises. We were apes, they were human.
- [tears up]
- Lord Charles Fox: When people speak of great men, they think of men like Napoleon - men of violence. Rarely do they think of peaceful men. But contrast the reception they will receive when they return home from their battles. Napoleon will arrive in pomp and in power, a man who's achieved the very summit of earthly ambition. And yet his dreams will be haunted by the oppressions of war. William Wilberforce, however, will return to his family, lay his head on his pillow and remember: the slave trade is no more.
- [Wilberforce receives a standing ovation from the entire House and the Gallery]
- John Newton: Though I have lost my memory, two things I know. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.
- 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. So, we will do them anyway.
- 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?
- Pitt the Younger: Yes, I suppose it is. You must keep going. Keep going fast.
- William Wilberforce: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a slave ship. The Madagascar. It has just returned from the Indies where it delivered 200 men, women and children to Jamaica. When it left Africa, there were 600 on board. The rest died of disease or despair. That smell - is the smell of death. Slow, painful death. Breath it in. Breath it deeply. Take those handkerchiefs away from your noses! There, now. Remember that smell. Remember the Madagascar! Remember, that God made men equal.
- 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.
- Barbara Spooner: It seems to me, that if there is a bad taste in your mouth, you spit it out. You don't constantly swallow it back.
- Duke of Clarence: Noblesse oblige.
- Lord Tarleton: What the bloody hell does that mean?
- Duke of Clarence: It means: my nobility obliges me to recognize the virtue of an exceptional commoner
- William Wilberforce: No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!
- Lord Tarleton: People?
- 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.
- Pitt the Younger: I don't care how important this is. I'll finish my shot.
- Pitt the Younger: [aims with club]
- Pitt the Younger: [exasperated] Oh, for God's sake, what is it?
- Barbara Wilberforce: You're discussing politics with your eyes. You might as well do it with your mouths.
- William Wilberforce: They only told me your sight was fading.
- John Newton: Well, now it's faded altogether. I never do things by halves. God decided I'd seen enough.
- Lord Tarleton: [walks into what looks like an empty room] Where the hell is everyone?
- Lord Charles Fox: Everybody's at the races in Epsom. They were given free tickets. I saved one for you.
- [holds up ticket]
- Lord Charles Fox: A free gift from William Wilburforce.
- [smiles]
- Pitt the Younger: I need an answer, Wilber. Do you intend to use your beautiful voice to praise the lord - or change the world?
- 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: [Fox walks in unexpectedly] Dear God.
- Lord Charles Fox: Well, almost. I spent eighteen months being torn apart by you in the House, Mr. Wilberforce. I thought I'd find out what it feels like to be on your side. I see you've got plenty of food. Any of you saints drink?
- Thomas Clarkson: Well, this one bloody does!
- 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.
- 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 Spooner: I am *for* them.
- William Wilberforce: [both pause]
- William Wilberforce: [resignedly] As am I.
- 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.
- Pitt the Younger: Barbara. You have my deepest condolescences.
- Barbara Wilberforce: [feigning seriousness] Thank you.
- Pitt the Younger: But do me a favour. Make him eat some of his pets.
- Barbara Wilberforce: [picking up rabbit] I rather like them.
- Pitt the Younger: I like them, too - in brandy sauce.
- Marianne Thornton: The Romans believed this water would restore the dead to life.
- Barbara Spooner: [looking at it, unimpressed] Most pump water I've investigated works in the opposite direction.
- 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.
- 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.
- John Newton: I can't help you. But do it, Wilber. Do it. Take them on. Blow their dirty, filthy ships out of the water. The planters, sugar barons, Alderman "Sugar Cane", the Lord Mayor of London. Liverpool, Boston, Bristol, New York. All their streets running with blood, dysentery, puke! You won't come away from those streets clean, Wilber. You'll get filthy with it, you'll dream it, see it in broad daylight. But do it. For God's sake.
- William Wilberforce: [Quoting Olaudah Equiano] Am I not a man - whose soul is drawn to heaven like water from the dark well of Africa?
- William Wilberforce: So the people have their compassion back.
- Barbara Spooner: And you still have passion! That matters more!
- 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.
- 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: This is why I really shouldn't talk about it.
- Barbara Spooner: I think you should.
- [pause]
- Barbara Spooner: There, we found something we don't agree on.