“To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.”

—  Ella Wheeler Wilcox , Protest

Protest, contained in "Poems of Problems", pp. 154–55 (1914). This quotation is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)

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Ella Wheeler Wilcox photo
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 46
American author and poet 1850–1919

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“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

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Sometimes attributed to Lincoln since a 1950 speech of Douglas MacArthur citing him as its author, this is actually from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
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