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.
Misattributed
“To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.”
Protest, contained in "Poems of Problems", pp. 154–55 (1914). This quotation is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)
ll. 169-171.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)
“At a time when many men were cowards, he was a true hero to the West.”
Otto von Habsburg, quoted in The Independent, Sunday 17 October 2010
About
“Silence can be either protest or consent, but most times it’s fear.”
Source: The Sellout
Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 147
Variant: Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Source: Julius Caesar
“Indian believes they ain't but two sins… bein a coward… and turnin agin yer own kind.”
Source: The Outlaw Josey Wales
