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I remember a story I have read buy could not remember the author the name or anything apart from the basic plot. The story is about some future where humanity has to fight with some aliens (not 100% sure). The story tells about a guy who was some kind of activist and who was in a prison two or more times and somehow helped humanity by being held in a prison (can't remember details). I think the story starts by saying that there is a statue in his honor that is not very well known but he did more to help humanity than famous politicians.

The story is most likely written by some famous English-speaking author, though I read it in a translation.

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  • Welcome to Science Fiction & Fantasy! Please try to add anything that may help identification. Review this checklist. When did you read it? What language was it in? Are there any other plot details you remember or descriptions of scenes or characters you can give? Anything at all? Feel free to edit any additional details into the question.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 22:40
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    This question was originally closed as a duplicate of this earlier question. I have reopened this question and closed the earlier question as a duplicate of this one, because the earlier question does not describe the accepted answer very well, and may confuse future users looking for the same story.
    – user14111
    Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 2:33

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I've answered this before:

The story "In a Good Cause—" by Isaac Asimov features two friends, Richard "Dick" Altmayer and Geoffrey Stock, who hold opposing views regarding the war between different human factions. Stock enlists in the army, while Altmayer argues that humanity should unite against a common adversary, the Diaboli, an alien race.

In the end, humanity is united, but through Stock's manipulations, rather than Altmayer's idealism.
Altmayer admits Stock was right, but Stock notes

(...) when they build their statues, they will build none for me.

The story was collected in Nightfall and Other Stories.

Altmayer repeatedly goes to prison for his beliefs.

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    That's it, thank you very much :)
    – Ilya Chernomordik
    Commented Dec 3, 2016 at 8:10

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