“Modern liberalism: a heartless steam engine.”
Quoted in Arthur Burns, "Wilberforce, Samuel (1805–1873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
Samuel Wilberforce, FRS was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day. The nickname derives from a comment by Benjamin Disraeli that the bishop's manner was "unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous". He is probably best remembered today for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution at a debate in 1860. Wikipedia
“Modern liberalism: a heartless steam engine.”
Quoted in Arthur Burns, "Wilberforce, Samuel (1805–1873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
“Is it on your grandmother’s or grandfather’s side that you are descended from an ape?”
To Thomas Henry Huxley, debating Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/evolution/how-did-evol-theory-develop/the-story/index.html
“Shabby, word-eating, pocket-picketing, sacrilegious villains.”
Of the Whig party.
Quoted in Arthur Burns, "Wilberforce, Samuel (1805–1873)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
“A resolution to attend theatres or operas is an absolute disqualification for Holy Orders.”
Quoted in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898), p. 74