# Quote — Murray Leinster, The Wailing Asteroid

> Eminent men were called on to take command and arrange suitable measures. They immediately acted as eminent men so often do; they took action to retain their eminence. Their first instinct was caution. When a man is important enough, it does not matter if he never does anything. It is only required of him that he do nothing wrong. Eminent figures all over the world prepared to do nothing wrong. They were not so concerned to do anything right.

- Author: [Murray Leinster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster.md)
- Book: [The Wailing Asteroid](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid.md)
- Page: 32
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Leinster#The_Wailing_Asteroid_(1960)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid/eminent-men-were

## More from this book

> There was bitter resistance to the idea. It was demanded that Burke justify his views in a more reasonable way than by mere demonstration that they worked.

p. 65 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid/there-was-bitter.md)

> As a young man he was considered promising. If he had been interested in such matters, he might have had a moderately successful career in politics, as politics was practiced in his nation. But he liked things. Real things.

p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid/as-a-young.md)

> “It isn’t reasonable!” insisted Holmes. “It doesn’t make sense!”
>
> “The question,” observed Burke, “isn’t whether it makes sense, but whether it’s fact.”

p. 96 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-wailing-asteroid/it-isnt-reasonable.md)