Who first said, "A different world cannot be built by indifferent people."?

Question

I did a google search, and there are many people the quote is attributed to multiple times, including:

Henry David Thoreau
Horace Mann
Peter Marshall

and some just said it was a famous "proverb"

how can you tell who said it first?

any help is appreciated

Answer 1

Difficult to say who may have said it first, but I find it attributed on what should be more reliable websites to Peter Marshall. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations does not list the quote at all, and does not have a section for Marshall (whereas it does for Thoreau and Mann, although the quote does not appear under their names either).

Of course, this is almost impossible to corroborate without access to original source material. Maybe a contact to his office ?

Answer 2

some person with the last name Thoreau