“And I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his present repute for the freedom to think,
And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak,
Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store,
Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.”

—  James Russell Lowell, A Fable for Critics

Pt. V - Cooper, st. 3
A Fable for Critics (1848)

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James Russell Lowell175
American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891

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