“Eminent men were called on to take command and arrange suitable measures. They immediately acted as eminent men so often do; the took action to retain their eminence. Their first instinct is 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.”

34 Philip
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

On Translating Homer (1861)

Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XV-IXX, Chapter XVIII.

2007
Source: [Steven M. Greer, Steven M. Greer and G7 Country announce disclosure of ET http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7755523912473399345, Recorded Conference, Disclosure Project, Los Angeles, California, 2007-02-11]

Eight Men (1961)

Source: Light in August (1932), Chapter 2

Thomas Salusbury translation (1661) p. 301 as quoted by Edwin Arthur Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925)
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
Context: I cannot sufficiently admire the eminence of those men's wits, that have received and held it to be true, and with the sprightliness of their judgments offered such violence to their own senses, as that they have been able to prefer that which their reason dictated to them, to that which sensible experiments represented most manifestly to the contrary.... I cannot find any bounds for my admiration, how that reason was able in Aristarchus and Copernicus, to commit such a rape on their senses, as in despite thereof to make herself mistress of their credulity.

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Prophet
Context: We have chosen Mahomet not as the most eminent Prophet; but as the one we are freest to speak of. He is by no means the truest of Prophets; but I do esteem him a true one. Farther, as there is no danger of our becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all the good of him I justly can. It is the way to get at his secret: let us try to understand what he meant with the world; what the world meant and means with him, will then be a more answerable question. Our current hypothesis about Mahomet, that he was a scheming Impostor, a Falsehood incarnate, that his religion is a mere mass of quackery and fatuity, begins really to be now untenable to any one. The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man, are disgraceful to ourselves only.